Athletes Famous Only for Off-Court Behavior

Athletes famous only for off-court behavior are not just athletes who would be obscure without some off-field antics, these athletes are those who are household names more because of their personal or legal life, not their athletic ability. Sure we'd know who these people are for their play in football, basketball, baseball, hockey or other sports, but not at the level we know them for crazy arrests, lengthy jail sentences or marrying a Kardashian or two.

For those athletes who have more Twitter followers than Snooki and those who spend more time on television or in the pages of gossip magazines than playing their sport, being known more for their off-court behavior is easy. Everyone knows NBA player Kris Humphries for his quickie marriage to a reality star (who just might have been voted a top Hollywood douchebag) but how many can tell you what team he plays basketball for? Same thing goes for Hank Baskett, Lamar Odom or Chad Johnson. They'd all be famous, but not to the extreme level they gained by being in the entertainment spotlight.

Then there's the athletes who found their names in national headlines for the wrong reasons. NFL players OJ Simpson, Michael Vick and Michael Irvin would have been remembered as great football players had they not been convicted (or famously acquitted) for heinous crimes like murder, sexual assault and animal abuse. Like MLB steroid scandal figure Barry Bonds, all of these athletes will for years to come have an asterisk by their names.


For whichever reason we know these names, be it from their larger-than-life personalities like Dennis Rodman or their drunken adventures like John Daly, we all know many of these athletes for what they did in their spare time not what they accomplished on the court, field or ice.