Some athletes spend years building a reputation through talent, discipline, and unforgettable performances. But once controversy follows them off the field, court, or track, the way fans remember them can change just as quickly.
The athletes on this list all reached the highest levels of their sports. Then scandals, legal trouble, doping cases, or other controversies became part of their stories, reshaping legacies that had once been defined mostly by what they accomplished in competition.
O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson was one of the NFL’s most accomplished running backs, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who later became a familiar face in broadcasting, commercials, and films. His public image changed dramatically in 1994, when he was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Before the trial, police pursued a white Ford Bronco carrying Simpson in a low-speed chase that an estimated 95 million people watched on television. A jury acquitted him of murder in 1995. In 1997, a civil jury found him liable for the wrongful deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.
In 2008, Simpson was convicted in Nevada on 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, stemming from a 2007 confrontation over sports memorabilia in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison with parole eligibility after nine years and was released on parole in 2017. Simpson died in 2024 at age 76.
Marion Jones
Marion Jones was one of the biggest stars of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where she won three gold medals and two bronze medals for the United States.
Questions about performance-enhancing drugs followed her for years, particularly as the federal investigation into BALCO expanded. Jones repeatedly denied using banned substances.
In October 2007, Jones pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements in two separate investigations. As part of her plea, she admitted that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs for about a year beginning before the 2000 Olympics. She was sentenced in January 2008 to six months in federal prison. The International Olympic Committee later disqualified her from her Sydney events and stripped her of all five medals.
Tiger Woods
By late 2009, Tiger Woods had won 14 major championships and was already one of the most successful golfers in history, with a carefully cultivated public image and major endorsement deals.
At about 2:25 a.m. on Nov. 27, 2009, the morning after Thanksgiving, Woods crashed his SUV near his Florida home after pulling out of his driveway, striking a fire hydrant and then a tree. The crash was followed by intense scrutiny of his personal life. Woods later acknowledged infidelity and publicly apologized.
Accenture ended its sponsorship in December 2009, followed by AT&T later that month. Gatorade ended its marketing relationship with Woods in February 2010. Woods announced an indefinite break from professional golf in December 2009 and later returned to competition. In 2019, he won the Masters for his 15th major title and his first major championship victory in nearly 11 years.
Antonio Brown
A four-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler, Antonio Brown was one of the NFL’s most productive wide receivers of the 2010s.
After a public breakup with the Pittsburgh Steelers following the 2018 season, Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders in March 2019. His brief Raiders tenure quickly became eventful. He arrived for training camp in a hot air balloon, dealt with frostbitten feet after a cryotherapy mishap, and fought the NFL over his helmet. The Raiders released him Sept. 7, two days before their season opener, and he never played a regular-season game for them.
The New England Patriots signed Brown days later. During his brief tenure with the team, former trainer Britney Taylor filed a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault; Brown denied the allegations. New England released him on Sept. 20 after 11 days with the organization, and Brown and Taylor settled the civil dispute in 2021. His time with Tampa Bay ended during a Jan. 2, 2022 game against the New York Jets, when he removed his helmet, jersey, and shoulder pads during the third quarter, waved to the crowd, and ran into the tunnel.
Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova was one of the biggest stars in women’s tennis, winning five Grand Slam singles titles and completing a career Grand Slam.
In March 2016, Sharapova announced that a sample collected at the Australian Open that January had tested positive for meldonium. She said she had taken the medication, sold as Mildronate, since 2006 for health reasons and had not realized meldonium had been added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list on Jan. 1, 2016.
The International Tennis Federation imposed a two-year suspension, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced on appeal to 15 months. Nike suspended its relationship with Sharapova, Porsche suspended planned promotional activities, and TAG Heuer ended talks to renew a sponsorship contract that had already expired. Sharapova later returned to competition and retired in 2020.
Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds was, statistically, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history and also one of its most polarizing stars. He finished his career with an MLB record of 762 home runs and set the single-season record with 73 in 2001. The steroid controversy that surrounded the latter part of his career became inseparable from discussions of his accomplishments.
The 2006 investigative book “Game of Shadows” alleged that Bonds had used performance-enhancing drugs beginning in the late 1990s, intensifying the scrutiny surrounding him. On Aug. 7, 2007, in San Francisco, Bonds hit career home run No. 756 to pass Hank Aaron for Major League Baseball’s all-time record. Bonds later spent the maximum 10 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame ballot, an MLB record, before being elected. In his final year of eligibility in 2022, he received 66% of the vote, short of the 75% required for election.
Tonya Harding
Tonya Harding stood out as a figure skater. Her working-class background and blunt personality made her an outlier in a sport typically associated with polish, while her athletic ability was undeniable. At the 1991 U.S. Championships, she became the first American woman to successfully land a triple Axel in competition.
Her career became inseparable from the Jan. 6, 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan in Detroit. Kerrigan was struck in the leg by Shane Stant in a plot involving Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and others. Harding denied knowing about the attack beforehand and went on to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics, where she finished eighth.
In March 1994, Harding pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiring to hinder prosecution, admitting that she had helped cover up the plot after the attack. In June, a U.S. Figure Skating Association disciplinary panel stripped her of the 1994 national title and banned her from the organization for life. The court separately concluded, using a civil “preponderance of the evidence” standard, that Harding had prior knowledge of and involvement in the attack.
The 2017 film “I, Tonya” revisited Harding’s life and the scandal for a new generation, but the lifetime ban remained in place.