Barry Bonds
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The NBA finds itself in turmoil just two days into the 2025-26 season after Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncy Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested in connection with an illegal gambling investigation by the NBA.
Both Billups and Rozier were deemed indefinitely ineligible by the NBA as the league awaits further findings from the FBI.
But the ongoing situation is just the latest in a long, illustrious line of scandals in American sports history. Which got us thinking, what other scandals would make that list?
Eight Of The Greatest Scandals In American Sports History
For the purposes of the exercise, we’re focusing on scandals that directly impacted sporting events themselves. Meaning that OJ Simpson and Jerry Sandusky will not be included, nor will USA Gymnastics’ horrific sex abuse scandal.
But even without those options, the list of scandals is lengthy and runs back more than a century, across several different sports and sports leagues.
There were dozens and dozens of scandals in consideration, but there are the eight we narrowed in on that help define the history of American sports.
8) The 1919 Black Sox Scandal
Chicago White Sox Logo
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What better place to start than one of the first big scandals in American sports history?
In 1919, the Chicago White Sox made the World Series only to lose to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3, in the best-of-nine series.
Following the series, eight members of the White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the series in exchange for payment from a gambling syndicate, which was allegedly led Arnold Rothstein, the head of the Jewish mob in New York City.
In response, the National Baseball Commission was dissolved and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed the first commissioner of baseball. The players were acquitted in court, but banned from baseball for life.
7) Tonya Harding Has Nancy Kerrigan Taken Out (Allegedly)
Nancy Kerrigan
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Nancy Kerrigan entered the 1994 U.S. National Figure Skating Championship as the reigning national champion and a threat for gold at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
However, prior to competing at U.S. Nationals, Kerrigan was shockingly taken out by an assailant who hit her in the knee with a baton following a practice session.
Shockingly, it later came to light that the assailant was hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of fellow American figure skater and rival Tonya Harding. Harding went on to win gold at the event, but was later stripped after she admitted to helping cover up the assault. Harding, to this day, denies that she had a hand in planning the attack. But Gillooly insists she knew.
Kerrigan recovered to win a silver medal at the Olympics just one month later.
6) Bountygate
New Orleans Saints helmet
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From one assault off the field of play, to several on it.
In 2009, whistleblower Mike Cerullo, a former New Orleans Saints defensive assistant, informed the NFL of an organized bounty program run by Saints defensive players and coaches.
A lengthy investigation by the league discovered that New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams created a pay-for-injury plan in hopes of making the defense more aggressive. The investigation found that between 22 and 27 Saints defensive players were involved, and that both the players and Williams contributed their own cash to the pot, and received cash payments based on their performance in the previous week’s game.
Williams was suspended indefinitely, and eventually returned in 2013 with the Tennessee Titans. Saints head coach
Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season, and New Orleans GM Mickey Loomis also served an eight-game suspension.
5) Pete Rose Bets On Baseball
Pete Rose Cincinnati Reds
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The hit king. Charlie Hustle. The catalyst for the Big Red Machine.
Pete Rose had established himself as one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history in the 1970s and 80s. But in 1989, that all came crashing down.
After reports that Rose had bet on baseball, special investigator John M. Dowd authored a 225-page report that included bank and telephone records, alleged betting records, expert reports, and transcripts of interviews with Rose and other witnesses, all of which indicated that Rose had, in fact, gambled on baseball.
Shortly after, Rose was permanently place on baseball’s ineligible list, going from a surefire Hall of Famer to an outcast. To this day, Rose has not gone into the Hall of Fame. Although both he and Black Sox member “Shoeless” Joe Jackson were recently removed from the ineligible list.
Rose passed away in September.
4) Spygate
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The New England Patriots’ near-20-year run atop the NFL is one of the most impressive dynasties in American sports history. But it did not come without controversy.
In 2007, the Patriots were found to have organized a scheme to illegally videotape opposing coaches’ signals during games. NFL Security quickly caught the team and confiscated the camera used by video assistant Matt Estrella to film the signals during a game against the New York Jets.
Two days later, New England coach Bill Belichick issued a statement “to apologize to everyone who has been affected.”
Belichick was hit with a $500,000 fine, the largest for a coach in league history, and the Patriots were stripped of their first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft.
As if that weren’t enough, years later, the Patriots were found to have tampered with NFL game balls in the now infamous “Deflategate” scandal.
3) Tiger Woods Caught In Cheating And Sex Scandal
Tiger Woods and wife Elin Nordegren
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While this one stretches the bounds of the rules about scandals that affect on-field results, it’s impossible to leave off.
In 2009, Tiger Woods felt well on his way to becoming the greatest golfer of all time. He was the face of the game and had won 14 major championships, just four shy of Jack Nicklaus’s record. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that he’d surely surpass the record in the coming years.
However, in November 2009, the National Enquirer published a story claiming that Woods had an extramarital affair with New York City nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel, who denied the claim. Two days later, Woods was treated for minor facial lacerations and received a ticket for careless driving after crashing his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant, a tree, and several hedges near his home.
We’d later learn that Woods was fleeing his wife, (and the mother of his two children) Elin Nordegren, who had broken out the back window of the vehicle with a golf club after discovering voicemails from one of Woods’ many mistresses.
Woods later publicly admitted to his infidelity and went to rehab for what he claimed was a sex addiction.
He wouldn’t win another major championship until 2009, and will seemingly end his career three majors shy of Nicklaus.
2) Lance Armstrong Fools The World
Lance Armstrong
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It was, perhaps, the most inspiring story in sports history.
Lance Armstrong, after beating testicular cancer, had become the greatest cyclist in the world, winning a record seven Tours de France, and doing so consecutively from 1999-2005.
Armstrong also created the Livestrong Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides support for people affected by cancer. Livestrong bands, a yellow rubber bracelet, could be found on just about anyone and everyone.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, that’s because it is.
In 2013, after years and years of investigations from several sources, Armstrong admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he had used illegal blood doping throughout much of his career. Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories and is now a lightning rod in the world of cycling, which has been plagued with doping throughout the peloton for many decades.
1) The MLB Steroid Scandal
Barry Bonds body transformation and weight gain in MLB
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In the late-1990s, interest in Major League Baseball was faltering. The New York Yankees were in the midst of their run of terror and the lack of scoring and highlight plays had dropped viewership to all-time lows.
Then the Summer of ’98 happened.
St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs superstar Sammy Sosa were hitting home runs at an astronomical rate. Both were chasing Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a season. And both surpassed it!
McGwire set a new MLB record with 70 home runs, while Sosa hit a jaw-dropping 66.
But McGwire’s record didn’t stand for long. Just three years later, San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds hit a jaw-dropping 73 home runs. In fact, from 2000-2004, Bonds hit an incredible 258 home runs, the most in any five-year stretch by a mile.
In 2007, his final year as a pro, Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron as the MLB’s all-time home run leader, ending his career with 762.
However, like Armstrong, it was all too good to be true.
In 2007, former United States Senator George J. Mitchell’s published the results of a 20-month investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball.
The 409-page report revealed widespread steroid and HGH use in the sport, with Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and just about every other superstar of the late 1990s and early 2000s swept up in it.
All three players, as well as several others from the “Steroid Era,” have remained out of the Baseball Hall of Fame despite defining a generation and, according to many, saving the game.