9 Pro Athletes Who Had Their Career Overshadowed By One Bad Mistake

Every professional athlete hopes to do something that guarantees they’ll be remembered long after their playing days after over. It goes without saying that they want that moment to be a positive memory, although there are plenty of people who’ve been immortalized for all the wrong reasons.

It’s hard to envy the pressure pro athletes find themselves dealing with on a regular basis. Every single person who plays a sport for a living is going to screw up now and then, and they can only hope to bounce back and put it behind them.

However, there are a number of people who were unable to get redemption due to a bad play or regrettable misstep that ended up defining their entire career.

Bill Buckner

The Red Sox headed into the 1986 World Series hoping to win a title for the first time since 1918, and they were on the verge of doing that against the Mets with a 3-2 lead heading into Game 6.

The two teams headed into extra innings tied at three, but Boston pulled out to a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th and had the chance to put things away.

The Red Sox came within a strike away from closing things out two times in the frame, but the Mets were able to rally and had tied things up when Mookie Wilson stepped up to the plate with the tying run on second.

He ended up hitting a ground ball to first base that seemed like it would end the inning before it rolled past the glove of Bill Buckner, who helplessly looked on as the Mets secured the 6-5 victory to force the deciding game that they’d end up winning.

Bucker ended up playing 22 seasons in the MLB, but the man who was a pariah in Boston until the Red Sox finally broke The Curse of the Bambino in 2004 is really only known for that error.

Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane is widely considered the best soccer player France has ever produced, and the three-time FIFA Player of the Year was one of the biggest reasons the team earned the right to face off against Italy in the World Cup final in 2006—the last career match for a man who said he was going to retire after the tournament ended.

That showdown was expected to be a battle between Zidane and Italian star Marco Materazzi, who were both responsible for the lone goal their teams scored before the contest headed into extra time.

However, things took a wildly unexpected turn when the two men confronted each other before Zidane delivered a headbutt to Materazzi’s chest, which drew a red card that brought the Frenchman’s career to a stunning end.

Italy won the game in penalty kicks, and while plenty of soccer fans would argue Zidane’s career isn’t defined by that infamous moment, the average person would associate him with it well before anything else.

Jean van de Velde

Zidane isn’t the only athlete hailing from France who befell a similar fate, as Jean van de Velde had a lengthy career as a professional golfer on the PGA Tour and European Tour that is firmly defined by what transpired during The British Open in 1999.

Van de Velde had a five-shot lead heading into the final round at Carnoustie that year and was still up three strokes over Justin Leonard and Paul Lowrie when he headed to the tee box on the 18th hole knowing he’d be able to secure the Claret Jug as long as he didn’t come away with anything worse than a double bogey.

He made the questionable decision to pull out a driver that narrowly avoided the water and kicked off a series of unfortunate events responsible for one of the biggest collapses in the history of golf.

Van de Velde’s next shot bounced off a grandstand and once again almost dropped into the stream running through the hole before landing in a patch of deep grass. He chunked his third shot and finally found the water, and he took off his shoes and socks to wade into the burn where it landed before realizing he needed to drop.

The next shot landed in a bunker, and he was able to get in on the green but was still facing the six-footer he needed to sink in order to make the playoff that didn’t seem in the realm of possibility when he’d teed off.

He was able to convert for triple bogey, but Lowrie ultimately prevailed in the playoff.

Jackie Smith

Jackie Smith spent the first 15 seasons of his Hall of Fame career with the Cardinals before capping things off with the Cowboys, who earned the right to face off against the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII in what would end up being his final NFL game.

The five-time Pro Bowler had never won a championship, and he ultimately ended his career without one after Pittsburgh walked away with the 35-31 victory in a game where he was at the center of a play that haunted him for years.

The Steelers were up 21-14 in the third quarter when the Cowboys staged a drive that brought them to Pittsburgh’s 10-yard line. Dallas was facing a 3rd-and-3 when Smith got wide open in the end zone only to drop the pass Roger Staubach fired his way, which forced the Cowboys to settle for a field goal.

He may not have been the only reason Dallas lost the game, but he nonetheless shouldered the bulk of the blame from plenty of fans.

Chris Webber

Chris Webber was the first overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft and would end up spending 15 seasons in the league, but he was never really able to escape what transpired during his final game at Michigan.

Webber was a member of the hallowed “Fab Five” that lost to Duke in the national championship in 1992 and had a shot at redemption when they faced off against North Carolina for the title the following year.

The Tar Heels had a 73-71 lead with 19 seconds to go when Webber grabbed a rebound after a missed free throw to kick off a possession where the Wolverines had the chance to either tie or take the lead.

He almost turned the ball over with a borderline travel that wasn’t called before he dribbled into the corner to call a timeout. However, there was one slight problem: Michigan didn’t have any remaining, and UNC sank both of the free throws they were granted after a technical foul was called to seal the deal.

Mark Sanchez

Two words: Butt Fumble.

Mark Sanchez spent a decade in the NFL after the Jets selected him with the fifth overall pick in 2009 and ultimately appeared in 79 regular-season games.

That includes a showdown with the Patriots that transpired on Thanksgiving in 2012 that spawned one of the funniest sequences in NFL history and the play Sanchez will never be able to live down.

The Patriots had a 7-0 lead in the second quarter when they forced a fumble and scored on the very next play to increase the lead to 14.

The Jets got the ball back after the kickoff and got an 11-yard completion before a broken handoff forced Sanchez to scramble only to collide with the rear-end of one of his own offensive linemen, coughing up the ball that Shane Vereen scooped up and took to the house.

That was the second of three TDs New England scored in the span of 52 seconds, as Joe McKnight fumbled on the ensuing kickoff before Julian Edelman grabbed it and extended the lead to 28.

It was a true comedy of errors and one defined by The Butt Fumble Sanchez will forever be burdened with.

 

Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson had an NBA career that spanned 13 seasons and spent the bulk of it with the Magic, who selected him with the 11th overall pick in the draft in 1989.

Orlando made it to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history when they faced off against the Rockets in 1995, and they had a very good chance to take a 1-0 lead in the series with a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

The Magic milked a ton of time off the clock with two clutch offensive rebounds that forced Houston to foul Anderson with 10.5 seconds to go, but he missed both of them to give the Rockets an opportunity they’d cash in on after Kenny Smith drilled a game-tying three.

Anderson—who had hit around 70% of his shots from the charity stripe at that point in his career—also missed two free throws in overtime as the Rockets got the win before pulling off the sweep.

It’s hard to imagine the Magic would have won the title even if he’d managed to convert, but he was still burdened with the “Nick the Brick” nickname for the remainder of his career.

Dan Orlovsky

Dan Orlovsky is the most accomplished quarterback to ever play football at UConn (which isn’t saying much), and while he spent 12 years in the NFL, his career wasn’t really that memorable.

However, it did produce a very memorable moment that easily defined it thanks to what went down when he was playing for the Lions in 2008 (the season where they went 0-16).

Detroit and Minnesota were tied at zero in the closing minute of the first quarter, and the Lions were pinned back against their own end zone on 3rd-and-10.

Orlovsky scrambled to try to avoid a Vikings defender who burst past the line only to run out of the back of his own end zone to gift Minnesota the two points that turned out to be the margin of victory in Detroit’s 12-10 loss.

Todd Bertuzzi

Todd Bertuzzi played for six teams during an NHL career where he appeared in 1,159 regular-season games over the course of 18 seasons. However, all of his achievements are firmly overshadowed by one of the ugliest incidents in the history of sports.

In 2004, Canucks captain Markus Näslund suffered a concussion after ending up on the receiving end of a questionable hit delivered by Detroit’s Steve Moore. The NHL declined to discipline Moore, and Todd Bertuzzi subsequently decided to take matters into his own hands to avenge his teammate.

Moore had a target on his back when the two teams faced off on March 8th and answered the bell when Matt Cooke challenged him to a fight in the first period.

Bertuzzi unsuccessfully challenged him to another tilt in the third, and after Moore declined to drop the gloves, he sucker-punched him in the side of the head before his opponent collapsed onto the ice.

Moore was taken off on a stretcher and was ultimately treated for a broken neck and other damage due to the incident that ended his career.

Bertuzzi was ultimately suspended for 20 games, was charged with assault before agreeing to a plea deal that allowed him to avoid serving any jail time, and was sued by Moore over lost income to kick off a lengthy legal battle that led to an undisclosed settlement.