The Heaviest Drinkers in Sports History

While most athletes solely enjoy the adrenaline-filled excitement behind sports, there are those who are only satisfied with thorough inebriation.

Many have enjoyed the taste of Gatorade and water, while others have preferred Jack Daniels and brew to stimulate their athleticism.

Only few, however, have been able to impress on-the-field and off-the-field partying like these hard-nosed drinking athletes.

These are the 25 heaviest drinkers in sports history.

Thanks COED Magazine for your help.

As well as he could hurl the baseball, David Wells could hurl the brews during his MLB career.

His tattoo of Babe Ruth was a metaphor for his tempestuous lifestyle.

With his Southern California upbringing, the former Yankees star clearly loved beer, broads and baseball.

He was said to have been "half-drunk" during his May 17, 1998 perfect game.

We're not surprised.

He may be the second all-time behind Gary Anderson for the most points scored by a Pittsburgh Steelers player after playing with them from 2002 to 2010, but Jeff Reed seemingly enjoys a frisky night out more than he does a thorough practice.

Currently a free agent, his hair could use a training session as well.

He may have come on television to promote the movie 300, but instead Chuck Liddell showed fans his best impression of Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

While we're somewhat impressed, we believe that the former Mixed Martial Arts fighter needs to lay off the hard stuff.

That can't possibly be enjoyable.

This must have been when first-place former British boxer Ricky Hatton got pummeled by Manny Pacquiao in the second round of their fight in 2009.

While the facial pain looks uncomfortable, one can only speculate on how his psyche felt.

A dark beer certainly helps.

After a notorious September collapse, confessions of drinking, eating and video-game playing came out from players in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse.

However, none were more dissected and followed than those of the Sox's pitchers.

With Jon Lester seemingly telling the whole story, the Red Sox are left to wonder what could have been if the team was a bit more focused and a tad less alcoholic.

Perhaps the term "alcoholic" is a stretch, but either way they lost sight of what mattered.

After upsetting the notorious Miami Heat ballers in the NBA Finals, Dallas Mavericks seven-foot German gargantuan can certainly kick back with some buddies for a couple of drinks if he feels inclined.

However, considering this is Dirk Nowitzki's first taste of a championship ring, fans are praying he doesn't become a raging alcoholic during the lockout.

At least he's got that one ring.

Many fans often wonder how the Green Bay Packers linemen can play comfortably in brutally cold temperatures with only a tank-top underneath their pads, but this former guard found a way.

An integral part of the Packers O-line during their Vince Lombardi glory years, amidst five NFL Championships (two Super Bowls), Fred Thurston was an All-Pro twice and is one of only three players in NFL history to play on six World Championship teams.

That didn't stop him from using odd methods to warm up for games.

In preparation for the Ice Bowl game, with temperatures 13 degrees below zero, Thurston was thirsty for something to warm him up, but hot chocolate wouldn't quite do the trick.

He told a sportswriter that he drank somewhere in the range of 10 vodkas to stay warm.

It wasn't quite the first time, as his teammates once put "Fuzzy" up against the Redskins’ massive tackle Fran O’Brien in a drinking bout of sorts.

After warming up with four beers, Thurston was seen flaunting his coherence on the bar, while the players dragged O'Brien out.

Now that he's taken a backseat to the illustrious Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton will undoubtedly have more time for the whiskey he seems to adore.

With a career rating of 79.4, he'll want to work on his mechanics as well as his drinking.

He seems dedicated.

NFL punters aren't routinely known as the bad-asses of the team, but Indianapolis Colts Pat McAfee made a strong case for himself when he was arrested for public intoxication last year.

Apparently, he believed he was wet "because it was raining," his "shirt was in the water" and he drank "a lot 'cause I'm drunk."

In only his second year at the time, McAfee clearly wasn't impressing his coaches.

It looks like that seven-year, $126 million contract that Barry Zito received from the Giants in 2006 is really going to good use...for him at least.

Aside from winning the World Series last year, San Francisco hasn't exactly gotten a return on their investment from Zito, who has yet to win more than 11 games or finish over .500 in a single season since coming from Oakland.

He's clearly not sharing any of his earnings.

While most two-time MVPs, who are also seven-time All-Stars, are undoubtedly in love with a couple of drinks and an adventurous night out, Canadian point guard Steve Nash seemingly took it to another level.

We are quite impressed with the wild side of this seemingly quiet personality.

He's clearly elusive enough to lose his shirt.

While it's been insinuated that Ben Roethlisberger plays better when injured, his play when he's intoxicated has yet to be challenged.

With over 1,500 yards and nine touchdowns this year, he seems to be at the peak of his career and ready for a challenge.

Perhaps the alcohol can numb his nagging injuries.

While he did actually admit that he drank during halftimes of NBA games in the past, Ron Artest was undoubtedly always seen as a probable alcoholic considering his wild style.

It's no wonder he was featured in the rap song "Henny at Halftime" by Reks.

While it seems like he was too lackadaisical to keep his head up, Allen Iverson undoubtedly wanted to avoid losing his bearings.

The 2001 MVP was known as arguably the quickest guard in history and was feared by opponents.

He probably feared his own crossover when he reached inebriation.

The only people enjoying this more than Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, are his fans—as well as anyone else who has the benefit of seeing him in action.

This team seems to have somewhat of a partying problem.

We'd prefer to say they're enjoying their recent victory.

This slugger was known as much for his significant girth as he was for his alcohol addiction, as well as his strange attempts at self-satisfaction.

A former first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels, Steve Bilko battled weight throughout his career before finding the ultimate creation.

A beer enthusiast, Bilko decided to try something new the night after a game.

He filled a bath tub with ice, brews and hot water, excited for his remarkable beer sauna. Bilko sat in the beer steam, while alternating between one can in the sauna and one down his throat.

A true passion for the suds.

Once a prolific home-run hitter for the Phillies, Pat Burrell hasn't seen himself surpass the 20-home run mark since 2008, his last year in the City of Brotherly Love.

This season he totaled seven home runs and 21 RBI, with a .230 average.

He doesn't seem too concerned.

Photo via @burrellsbiscuit

While he hasn't won more than nine games since 2008, Chicago White Sox starter Jake Peavy was still one of the most prolific pitchers in the game only four years prior, when he went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA in 2007.

Apparently, the Jagermeister got the best of him. 

Although, with a bar like this in the background, we can't possibly blame him.

He may only have averaged 4.4 points last season for the Los Angeles Clippers on the basketball court, but Ricky Davis is quite talented at digesting the alcohol.

Almost scoring a triple-double the night after taking down 19 bottles of patron will sure garner some respect around the league.

He may be an anomaly.

Some overweight individuals use the Atkins diet, others use Weight Watchers, and LenDale White uses the Patron diet.

A former tequila connoisseur, so to speak, the bruising former USC running back cut back on his intake and lost 12 percent of his body weight.

A 30-pound subtraction leads us to believe the diet might work.

The former defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts was not only inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968, but Art Donovan was as much known for his humorous quotes as his prowess on the field.

"We didn’t have steroids. If I wanted to get pumped up, I drank a case of beer," said Donovan.

That just reeks of an old-time drinker.

Arguably the greatest pioneer in the game of baseball, "the Bambino" dominated with beer and hot dogs.

By binging on hot dogs and soda pop before a game during the spring training of 1925, Babe Ruth inherited an ailment known as "the bellyache heard round the world."

David Wells wrote in his autobiography, “Babe Ruth became my first real hero. He could pitch, he could hit, he could eat seventeen hot dogs and launch a ball five hundred feet. He ate too much. He smoked too much. He drank too much. He rented his hookers by the dozen. What’s not to love?”

He was an inspiration to all, but a bad influence on himself.

It must have been the beer that made him great.

This American golfer is known for his gaudy yet iconic attire, carefree attitude, long drive off the tee and past alcoholism.

Not only did John Daly allegedly claim that he drank a fifth of Jack Daniel's every day when he was 23 years old, but it was reported that he had to be removed from a British Airways plane by security for harassing an attendant while inebriated. 

Having been in various alcohol addiction programs and gone through four divorces, seemed to teach the hefty golfer a lesson, until he was seen shaking during his turns at the 1998 Greater Vancouver Open.

In 2008, his swing coach quit with the belief that the golfer's main priority was to get intoxicated.

He seemed to get the hint, and in 2010, at the British Open, Daly announced the exclusion of alcohol from his life.

This French professional wrestler, known as "The Eighth Wonder of the World," may be remembered more for his boozing than his athleticism, despite being the first wrestler inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1993.

Andre Roussimoff was labeled "The Greatest Drunk on Earth" after drinking 119 12-US-fluid-ounce (350 ml) beers in six hours.

Mike Graham noted him for drinking 156 16-US-fluid-ounce (470 ml) beers in one sitting on an episode of Legends of Wrestling.

He then allegedly drank 127 beers in a Pennsylvania hotel before passing out in the lobby.

It clearly took a lot to get this behemoth intoxicated.

Ranked No. 95 on the list of 100 Greatest Baseball Players on Sporting News in 1999, Wade Boggs was known as much for his superstitions as his drinking ability.

The fact that he allegedly drank 64 beers on a cross-country flight automatically gets him on this list, but with teammates' testimonies, it seems as if that wasn't the first time he impressed with alcohol.

Boggs was named one of the Top 10 Most Superstitious Athletes by Men's Fitness, leading us to believe that alcoholism must have worked in batting practice the first time and he felt inclined to stick with it.

He just looks like a beer drinker.