O.J. Simpson was released on parole from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada on October 1 2017, just a few hours after midnight. He was serving time for the felony crimes of kidnapping, assault, and robbery, among other charges. The incident occurred in September 2007 when Simpson and three other men broke into sports memorabilia collector Bruce Fromong’s hotel room and stole sports memorabilia from him at gunpoint. On July 20 2017, the parole board granted Simpson parole.
That O.J. Simpson is a free man once again will likely stir up some controversy since many people still believe he was responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1994. A heavily publicized trial ensued, which ended up in Simpson being acquitted on all charges. The acquittal led to significant debate and backlash, but Simpson was eventually found civilly liable for the deaths. Simpson’s reputation as a talented football player will forever be tarnished and will forever continue to be linked to the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
O.J. Simpson is far from the only professional athlete to have committed such heinous crimes. Simpson is perhaps one of the most notorious athletes turned criminals, and is also probably one of the most hated because of the evilness behind his crimes. There have been countless other athletes who committed some heinous crimes. These severity of these crimes are truly evil.
Without minimizing the impact and severity of the crimes on the respective victims, we will take a look at 15 other athletes who committed such serious crimes that can only be considered evil.
15 15. AARON HERNANDEZ
Let’s get the most recent heavily publicized athlete turned criminal out of the way first. Technically, in the eyes of the law, Aaron Hernandez is an innocent man. This is because of a technicality in Massachusetts law where, because he died while his appeals were still heard before the court, he is to be deemed innocent. This does not change the fact that Hernandez was convicted of committing such an evil crime.
There was of course the killing of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. It becomes especially evil when Hernandez did his best to try to conceal his involvement in the crime, including suspiciously destroying his home security system. Hernandez displayed a palpable lack of remorse and turned the lives of two families upside down, causing exponential damage.
14 14. EDDIE JOHNSON
Eddie Johnson is going to be spending the rest of his life behind bars and with good reason. Johnson's career in the NBA lasted about a decade and he was particularly known for his speed. However, Johnson was never able to stay out of trouble on the field and he was arrested over 100 times, going in and out of prison.
He was eventually given a life sentence after being convicted of sexual battery of a minor under 12 and lascivious molestation of a child under 12. When hearing the details of the case, you realize just how disturbing this was, so we'll spare you the explicit details here. He was given the mandatory life sentence for the crime and is currently incarcerated in Santa Rosa Correctional Institution.
13 13. MICHAEL VICK
Michael Vick turned innocent dogs into vicious warriors and fighters, just to line his own wallet. Regardless of whether he learned from his mistakes, the crimes committed by Michael Vick were downright evil. He abused countless dogs and killed dozens more if they were not performing up to Vick’s standards. He was ultimately sentenced to 23 months in prison and a $5,000 fine, but nothing can undo the irreparable harm he knowingly caused to those dogs. Despite the American Humane Society speaking out and harshly condemning all those involved in the dog fights, Vick was welcomed back into the NFL after serving his sentence.
No matter how good his career might be, Vick’s reputation will always suffer due to the reputation of being involved in the sickening Bad Newz Kennels dog fights.
12 12. Mark Rogowski
Mark Rogowski is a former skateboarder who gained a lot of popularity in the 80s and early 90s. However as the sport shifted from more of a vertical style, to more of a street style, Rogowski lost some relevance in the world of skateboarding. However Rogowski sank to a very dark place shortly after breaking up with his long-term girlfriend and began to obsessively stalk her and her new boyfriends. In early 1991 he was seen with Jessica Bergsten and she was reported missing shortly afterward.
Police would find her body in the Californian desert later on and Rogowski confessed to the killing. The details of the case are still disturbing to hear, all these years later. He was sentenced to 31 years in prison and a documentary about his life was released in 2002.
11 11. LAWRENCE PHILLIPS
Nobody enjoys losing – it’s human nature. Professional athletes are understandably focused on winning that it is tough to suffer a loss, no matter the sport. Lawrence Phillips was playing a pickup football game against teenagers aged 14, 15, and 19. Embarassed, Phillips took sore losing to a stunningly evil level when he literally drove his car into the opposing team. The teenagers were injured in the vicious assault, and Phillips was sentenced to jail time. This is notably evil considering the great lengths Phillips took to apparently teach the kids a lesson and get back at them for beating him. Those teenagers probably felt so good about themselves for beating the former NFLer, but he turned their day into a life of pain and suffering.
10 10. LANCE ARMSTRONG
Lance Armstrong had easily one of the most successful and lucrative cycling careers. He was perhaps best known for winning the Tour de France an unprecedented seven consecutive times, between 1999 and 2005! All of those successes came crashing down on Armstrong in 2012. The United States Anti-Doping Agency Investigation formally concluded that Armstrong had used performance enhancing drugs during his entire career. The Agency described Armstrong as “…the ringleader of the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
Armstrong was stripped of all his championships and issued a lifelong ban from the sport. Despite confessing to all the allegations in a 2013 interview, it does not change the fact that Armstrong had previously lied about it for years. He even attacked people verbally who accused him of cheating, and even took them to court over the allegations – only for those people to end up vindicated years later. He turned several people’s lives upside down all because of his repeated denial about not winning the right way.
9 9. JAYSON WILLIAMS
Jayson Williams played for the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets between 1990 and 1999, before having to suddenly retire due to injury. His post-basketball career was not kind to Williams, as he was involved in bar fights and faced weapons charges. Things took a very dark turn for the worse when he was giving a tour of his estate to an NBA charity team. Williams decided to demonstrate the effectiveness of his shotgun by ‘accidentally’ shooting his limousine driver. It is largely unknown why Williams decided it would be a good idea to have the shotgun on him.
To make matters worse, Williams had tried to conceal the crime by obstructing the witnesses and trying to get them to lie about what had happened. It did not work as the team of witnesses testified against him and Williams was convicted in 2010 of trying to cover up the shooting.
8 8. RAE CARRUTH
Rae Carruth played for the Carolina Panthers in the NFL for a few seasons, before his career ended because of the evil crime he committed. His girlfriend, Cherica Adams, was found dead in November 1999. She had been shot four times and died a month later because of her injuries. It would later be revealed that Carruth hired Van Brett Watkins Sr. to carry out the attack on his ex-girlfriend. It was truly evil because he apparently wanted Cherica dead so that he would not be responsible for paying child support. On that note, the hired assassination was made all the more evil since Cherica was pregnant with Carruth’s child at the time of the shooting. The child was born through an emergency Caesarean section in hospital and suffers from cerebral palsy and permanent brain damage because of the shooting.
7 7. UGUETH URBINA
Ugueth Urbina was a Venezuelan pitcher who spent a decade in the MLB as a relief pitcher, and was a 2-time All-Star. Urbina was a man who made it to America and the big leagues. He had earned the opportunity to make millions and do very well for himself and his family. Instead, he went back home in 2005 and tried to catch five farm workers on fire. Urbina apparently accused the workers on his own farm of stealing a gun, so he reacted in one of the evillest ways possible. He grabbed a machete and threw gasoline all over them in his attempt to kill all of them! He was convicted on charges of attempted to murder and sentenced to 14 ½ years in prison.
6 6. OSCAR PISTORIUS
Oscar Pistorius, or “The Blade Runner”, was a feel-good story of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. He competed in the 400m and 1600m relay, despite having both legs amputated below the knees as an infant. On Valentine’s Day in 2013, he shot and killed his model girlfriend Reeve Steenkamp in his South Africa home. He had claimed he mistook her for an intruder and, unable to see her during the night, ‘accidentally’ shot her through the bathroom door. The far-fetched story was not believed by the court, especially due to inconsistencies and the fact that Pistorius fired multiple shots at Steenkamp.
Pistorius obviously had motive to kill Steenkamp as he had a gun ready to go and it was unlikely that he would not have at least had an idea where his girlfriend was. Pistorius was found guilty and is serving time in prison after being convicted of murder.
5 5. TONYA HARDING
Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding were fierce figure skating competitors during the 1980s and 1990s, despite both being Americans. Even though they are both fighting for the same gold medal and recognition, most people would think to put the pride of their country first. There clearly came a point where Harding became so selfish and so determined to be better than Kerrigan, that she had to resort to evil and malicious means to do so. Following Kerrigan’s practice at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January 1994, she was brutally attacked in the corridor.
The hired hand, Shane Stant, brutally clubbed Kerrigan in her right knee with a police baton. The incident received worldwide publicity that witnessed Kerrigan tearfully crying, “Why? Why? Why?” It must be pretty clear that you are evil if you are involved in hiring someone to take out one of your competitors. The fact that it was done to a fellow American to try to knock her out of the Olympics made the attack all the more despicable.
4 4. War Machine
While War Machine was not convicted or accused of the same types of crimes as O.J., it was only by luck that his ex-girlfriend Christie Mack survived the assault the former MMA fighter laid on her a few years ago. Mack was taken to the hospital and it was discovered she had suffered 18 broken bones, missing teeth, a fractured rib and a ruptured liver. Thankfully, Mack has since recovered from the incident, and War Machine was handed a heavy prison sentence earlier this year. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 36 years. The chilling part about this is that throughout his trial, War Machine seemed to show zero remorse for what he had done. Mack said the trial was extremely hard on her:
“It stays with you for a long time. And while I don’t feel the love that I used to feel for him now, going through this process with somebody that you did love – or that I felt like I loved – is extremely hard.”
3 3. TOM PAYNE
Tom Payne is probably one of the least recognizable names on this list, and for good reason. Although he starred in college basketball with Kentucky and had the makings of a promising player when the Atlanta Hawks drafted him in 1971, his career never really had the chance to take off. In May 1971, Payne was arrested (then later convicted) for a pair of rapes in the Atlanta area. During his prison term for those crimes, he was involved in a prison riot. Not too long after his release and extradition to Kentucky, Payne was convicted for having committed yet another rape! He was paroled in 1983 for some reason, moved to Los Angeles, and then arrested for attempted rape in 1986. Rape is a very serious crime with a plethora of long lasting impacts on the victims, but Payne never really seemed to learn his lesson. Every time he was released, he was arrested and convicted for another rape charge.
2 2. ROBERT ROZIER
Robert Rozier was a defensive lineman who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (now Arizona) in the NFL in 1979 before spending 1980 in the CFL. His career was unexpectedly brief because of allegations of drug use and other sorts of petty crimes. The real evil crimes committed by Rozier came to light in 1986. After Rozier left football, he became involved in “The Brotherhood” led by Yahweh ben Yahweh. To join the secret group, he was required to murder a ‘while devil’ and return one of the body parts to the group. Rozier changed his name to Neariah Israel, “Child of God” in the radical terrorist cult. Rozier later admitted to killing seven white people in order to please Yahweh. He also killed 2 former members, before eventually pleading guilty to the crimes.
1 1. JERRY SANDUSKY
Jerry Sandusky never really played professional football and is not technically an athlete, but we would be remiss if we do not include him in this list. Sandusky was, after all, heavily involved in the Pennsylania State University football program as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for several decades.
In June 2012, Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse charges. The highly disgusting charges involve disturbing “soap wars” with young boys to various sexual assaults he committed. He was involved in the grooming of children as young as 8 and would incrementally lead to further acts of pedophilia. Considering Sandusky’s status at the university and the nature of the crimes, there is no doubt that the several crimes he committed over a prolonged time period are absolutely evil.