Saddest decline of a professional athlete.

Carmelo Anthony

Ryan MF Shay how has no one listed this yet, this is a running forum

Len Bias

Aaron Hernandez

Pat Tillman

Drazen Petrovic

too many others to list

All much sadder than someone just hanging on. You could argue semantics of the meaning of decline but not the term sad.

As far as running goes, I think Ryan Hall is one of the top choices. His career up to 2011 was fantastic for an American distance runner, and the 2:04 at Boston was phenomenal, but his career the next six years was so hard to watch. It was DNF after DNF and pulling out of races before he even got to the starting line. He flew too close to the sun and never came back to where he once was. If it wasn't for Berlin this year, we could almost be saying the same thing about Bekele. Nick Symmonds also comes to mind as somebody who really fell off. His fight for athlete's rights was admirable but from a performance standpoint, he dropped off after 2013 and after 2015 he was basically out of the sport. Sure he's 35 which is very old for an 800m runner and he's making money with his business ventures, but he's staying famous(?) by racing kids and doing novelty races now. In other sports,

Sad n slow wrote:

Will Leer.

Mac Fleet.

I disagree with both of these, for different reasons.

Will was a D3 athlete who exceeded expectations for himself and ran very well for a solid 5 or 6 years post collegiately. He might be far off from the times he once ran, but if you looked at where he was in college, I think he's doing fine for somebody 34 years old.

In the case of Mac Fleet, I can't say he had a sad decline of a professional athlete. He's effectively a draft bust. Ran awesome in college for the most famous track school in America and then literally since the day he graduated has been mediocre ever since. No Olympic teams, no WC teams, not even Pan Am teams as an adult. I don't know who his agent is but he's gotta have the hardest working agent in professional sports with how he still has a Nike contract and can get into big name meets.

The Bayman wrote:

In other sports,

David Wright with the Mets and Andrew Luck with the Colts had sudden drop offs because of injury, and both of them were fan favorites in their cities and had great statistics for a notable period of time.

Tim Tebow after the Broncos was really hard to watch.

jessen jeffla wrote:

Ryan MF Shay how has no one listed this yet, this is a running forum

Len Bias

Aaron Hernandez

Pat Tillman

Drazen Petrovic

too many others to list

All much sadder than someone just hanging on. You could argue semantics of the meaning of decline but not the term sad.

Len Bias f---ed himself by overdosing on drugs. I don't feel bad for him. How about another basketball star of the same time period - Hank Gathers. I still find it hard to watch the video on YouTube of his final moments. Especially the reaction of the woman whom I believe was his mother. A thunderous tomahawk dunk and then moments later he's gone.

Drazen Petrovic died in a car crash you fking idiot

Not sure if he's been mentioned and I'm unwilling to read through 8 pages to find out.

NICK SYMMONDS

His whole fake outrage at Nike and USATF that was all a publicity stunt to increase visibility for his gum was very sad. What he has become now is even worse.

Pathetic LRC wrote:

Let's start a negative thread about the saddest decline of a professional athlete instead of a positive thread about professional athletes. I have no idea what kind of mental illness this reflects, but it starts with the founders.

What is wrong with you?

Many years prior to social media fails ABC Sport showed this over and over for years. Vinko Bogataj is the unlucky ski jumper.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Sports/happened-agony-defeat-ski-jumper/story%3fid=41406621

Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles. As recently as 2015 he led the Majors in home runs with 47, and also had 117 runs batted in, but he's been in an inexorable -and inexplicable- tailspin since then, descending all the way to a .168 batting average in 2018- the worst ever for a full-time position player. He "rebounded" to .179 this past season, but that was only after setting another record in futility for position players: Going 0 for 54, the longest-ever hitless streak.

Like a lot of power hitters Davis has always struck out a lot, even in his most productive years, but this is way beyond a slump at this point, it's more like Davis's ability has just vanished. And what's mystifying about it is that he's still only 33.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Two under-the-radar ones:

Missy Franklin is a good one. She was the best swimmer in the world at age 17. 4 years later she was barely in the Games. She did get some NCAA titles, but she was not the same swimmer.

I think Jonas Gray too is a good one. Gets his opportunity and destroys the Colts for the Patriots. Shows up late the next workday and never has a meaningful football moment again.

Missy Franklin is an interesting choice. She did not get old, I would argue. She had an abundance of injuries due to years of overtraining. I have no inside knowledge, but I suspect that is what happened. A cautionary tale for young swimmers.

You can compare Mo's career to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The 14th and 15th century represent his pre Salazar years. The 16th century represents his best year. The downfalls start with the racism he experiences like in the airports. The biggest trouble in the empire was that Muslims were undereducated compared to Christians. This caused a lot of tension. The fight's Mo got into can be compared to territory losses during wars. The hotel incident with Geb is like the Crimean War in the mid 19th century. The Gallipoli fights in 1915-16 are like the Great North run this year. Despite his victory here he was still on the way out. The Salazar revelations and Mo's carnage in Chicago are like the end of WW1 and the Ottoman Empire. Now he is a Turkey who is finished. Gobble gobble MF.

My vote is for Alan Webb. Frustrating and painful to watch as a big fan.

Tiger Woods (but he’s coming back)

Eli Manning

Derrick Rose

Tim Tebow

Jim Ryun realized that his athletic talent was a gift from God not to be taken lightly. He used his relatively short lived fame as a segway into a much more meaningful and lengthy dedication of helping as many people as possible.

When will it end wrote:

Tim Tebow

I actually think Tebow's (still ongoing) pursuit of baseball is inspiring even if he never makes it to the Show:

Sick Nymmonds wrote:

Not sure if he's been mentioned and I'm unwilling to read through 8 pages to find out.

NICK SYMMONDS

His whole fake outrage at Nike and USATF that was all a publicity stunt to increase visibility for his gum was very sad. What he has become now is even worse.

Don't forget his fake girlfriend.

Mikeh33 wrote:

hate the Pats but Brady is the GOAT wrote:

Well, if you're going to nominate Brady then I nominate Barry Sanders.

1997 - 2053 yards, 6.1 per carry, 11 TDs

1998 - 1491 yards, 4.3 per carry, 4 TDs

He clearly sucked it up his last year and should have retired after 1997. It was tough watching him struggle to only 1500 yards his final season. Just didn't know when to hang up the spiked, right?

Shall we discuss Jim Brown's abysmal 5.3 per carry his final season next?

Are you trolling? Barry sanders final season was superb, far better than almost any other running back his age at that time in his career. 2000 yards comes along once in a career for a running back. Everything has to come together. 1500 yards the next year is still outstanding.

Ummm . . . YES, HE WAS TROLLING. Not even trolling, really. more like trying to be funny with something so obviously absurd.

Now for you - Do you ever get anything?

Ever?