Friday, May 02, 2008

The 75 Biggest Pariahs in Sports

From today's "Morning Rush" show . . . fifty callers (exactly) weighed in with their votes; the ones below are the candidates I consider reasonable. Remember again the definition of the word 'pariah.'

"pariah": an outcast, a malcontent, one who's been shunned or shown scorn by others, a negative term

With that in mind, in the context of the modern sports world, here are my rankings:

1) O.J. Simpson
2) Mike Tyson
3) Pete Rose
4) Michael Vick
5) Jose Canseco
6) Barry Bonds
7) Roger Clemens
8) Pac-Man Jones
9) Marion Jones
10) Ron Artest
11) Rafael Palmeiro
12) Mark McGwire
13) Dennis Rodman
14) Ricky Williams
15) John Daly
16) Rae Carruth
17) Buddy Ryan
18) Woody Hayes
19) Tim Montgomery
20) Ray Lewis
21) Billy Martin
22) Denny McElwain
23) Don King
24) Ryan Leaf
25) Ty Cobb
26) Shoeless Joe Jackson
27) John McEnroe
28) Todd Bertuzzi
29) Marty McSorley
30) Diego Maradona
31) Terrell Owens
32) Allen Iverson
33) Randy Moss
34) Bobby Knight
35) Brian McNamee
36) Victor Conte
37) Marv Albert
38) Tony Stewart
39) George Steinbrenner
40) Mark Cuban
41) Al Davis
42) Steve Howe
43) Danny Heatley
44) Isiah Thomas
45) Stephon Marbury
46) J.R. Rider
47) Rasheed Wallace
48) Tonya Harding
49) Floyd Landis
50) Kobe Bryant
51) Bill Buckner
52) Scott Norwood
53) Ben Johnson
54) John Rocker
55) Mitch Williams
56) Art Schlicter
57) Kermit Washington
58) Greg Norman
59) Tim Hardaway
60) Latrell Sprewell
61) Tim Donaghy
62) Nolan Richardson
63) Daniel Snyder
64) Lawrence Phillips
65) Bill Romanowski
66) Roberto Alomar
67) Steve Bartman
68) Daryl Strawberry
69) Dwight Gooden
70) Maurice Clarett
71) Howard Cosell
72) Roy Tarpley
73) Jason Giambi
74) Bill Laimbeer
75) Nate Newton

_______________________________

-JAB

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I'd drop Pete Rose completely out of the list. His "sin" was betting, gambling on the Reds and others; sure.

But Pete's actions were behind the scenes, not visible to anyone save the gambler on the other end of the phone.

Now, had Pete gone after a fan in the stands, or murdered his wife and her boyfriend, we could argue. But not. Gambling? Hardly.

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