The 50 Biggest Social Media Fails in Sports History

Image via Complex Original

Date: 6/25/2013
Who: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
The fail: Revealing that he was ready to come back and play for the New York Yankees on Twitter, way before the Yankees wanted the world to know about it

Oh, A-Rod. First the Yankees don't want him back, now baseball wants him completely removed from the game. Where did it all go wrong for one of the most touted prospects to ever enter the league? Probably when he started taking steroids and then lied about it, but that's just our guess.

Date: 6/18/2013
Who: Lolo Jones, Olympic track and field hurdler/bobsled team member
The fail: Making fun of a paycheck that was sent to her for seven months' worth of work with the U.S. bobsled team in a Vine video

When you're endorsed by the likes of McDonalds, Red Bull, and Asics, you can afford to make jokes about $741 checks being too small to pay your rent. The only problem is that you have bobsled teammates who live for that $741 check and probably aren't going to be too happy with you. Have fun at your next practice!

Who: Stephen A. Smith, ESPN writer/analyst
The fail: Responding to a story written by The Onion on Twitter before finally realizing that the story was obviously 100 percent made-up

Someone probably should've informed Stephen A. that The Onion is a joke publication. On second thought, it's way more entertaining to see him go off on, well, no one really. "LeBron James..."

Date: 1/9/2011
Who: Ryan Babel, Dutch football player
The fail: Mocking up a photo of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt and then posting it to his Twitter account

Athletes arguing with referees on the field is nothing new. But athletes taking shots at them on Twitter? That was a whole new ballgame back in early 2011 when the Liverpool winger put up the photo you see above on Twitter. He was later fined more than $15,000 for doing it.

Date: 8/24/2010
Who: Chad Ochocinco, Former NFL player
The Fail: Getting fined $25,000 by the NFL for tweeting in the middle of a game

How does Ochocinco respond to getting fined for tweeting during a preseason game? By tweeting about it, of course. Two Bugatti payments for Ocho, about half a year's salary for the average working Joe. At least he was still able to eat at his favorite establishment, McDonald's.

Date: 12/16/2012
Who: Tony Hawk, Skateboarder
The fail: Taking a photo of him and his daughter skating together on a halfpipe without wearing helments or any type of protective gear and posting it on Instagram

Dude, where's your helmet? Or better yet, where's your daughter's helmet? We know that you probably haven't busted your ass on a skateboard since, like, 1988 or something crazy. But you got killed just for taking this photo. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if your daughter actually got hurt while you did something like this? Talk about a fail.

Date: 9/13/2012
Who: Lance Armstrong, Former cyclist
The Fail: Accidentally tweeting out his cell phone number in a tweet that appeared as though it was supposed to be a direct message

It looks like Lance had to change his number after this classic case of not knowing a tweet from a direct message. Others have been guilty of the miscue before, and Armstrong probably won't be the last dude to be embarrassed by this type of gaff. Although, we hope athletes, especially those who are north of 30, are taking notice of such offenses.

Date: 5/14/2010
Who: Darnell Dockett, Arizona Cardinals
The fail: Accepting a $1,000 bet that involved him taking a shower and broadcasting it for all of his Twitter followers on Ustream

Dockett made almost $5 million during the 2010 NFL season. But for whatever reason, he couldn't turn down a $1,000 bet that involved him jumping into the shower in front of a bunch of strangers on Ustream. WTF?

Date: 9/11/2011
Who: Nathan Eccleston, English football player
The fail: Blaming the Illuminati for the 9/11 attacks on Twitter and unleashing his conspiracy theories about September 11

This one seems pretty damn malicious on the part of the young Englishman, to post conspiracy theories about 9/11 on the tenth anniversary of the atrocities is just wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but pick your spots and your vehicles well, young man. Want repercussions? Eccleston played for Liverpool at the time of the incident, and he's now on loan from Blackpool at Carlisle United.

Date: 11/9/2011
Who: Ashton Kutcher, University of Iowa football fan
The fail: Wondering why Penn State had decided to fire Joe Paterno before he actually got around to finding out their reason for doing it

Was Kutcher filming a movie in the middle of Antarctica when the Jerry Sandusky news broke or...?

Date: 7/10/2012
Who: James Harden, Houston Rockets
The fail: Telling the world that he had been traded to the New Orleans Hornets on Instagram

Was it a prank? A hack? We don't know exactly what happened on this one, but we know James Harden really regretted it. We wonder what Thunder fans were thinking when this one surfaced on the Internet, we know the fact that Thunder brass had to make official statements about the incident could not have gone over well in the locker room.

Date: 10/2/2011
Who: Bernard Berrian, Former NFL player
The fail: Telling an amputee who served in the war in Iraq to "sit down n shut up!!" on Twitter after the man criticized his play on the field

To be fair to the former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver, he didn't know that John Kriesel, a war veteran, was an amputee when he wrote this to him. So had he simply apologized to him after telling him to "sit down n shut up," we would have let this slide. But even after another Twitter user informed him about Kriesel's condition, Berrian didn't seem to care. "Shouldn't have opened his mouth," he wrote. We would say the same about Berrian.

Date: 9/11/2009
Who: Courtney Fortson, Former University of Arkansas basketball player
The fail: Comparing an intense practice session that he was taking part in to a situation that seems to involve rape on Twitter

We just don't understand why athletes think rape is acceptable to joke about. Why can't you just tweet that practice was hard? Leave the witty similes and metaphors to the writers of the New Yorker.

Date: 1/6/2013
Who: Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M University football player
The fail: Going to a casino to gamble and then throwing a photo of him holding some of the money that he won on Instagram

Johnny Football wasn't doing anything wrong in this photo. Even though he was only 20 here, he was at a casino that only required patrons to be 18. But this was the first of many, many, many photos that put Manziel in the line of fire and made a lot of people turn against him. His Twitter response didn't help things. "Nothing illegal about being 18+ in a casino and winning money," he wrote. "KEEP HATING!" Okay then.

Date: 10/8/2012
Who: Tony Carter, Denver Broncos
The fail: Making a bad reference to the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting on Twitter just a few months after it happened

Yeesh, this really is a classic case of think before you tweet. The apology was made, and we believe that Tony Carter really did just make a slip here, but good Lord, what were you thinking? A mass shooting cannot be the basis for a joke, ever.

Date: 6/23/2012
Who: Amar'e Stoudemire, New York Knicks
The fail: Calling one of his followers a "fag" through a direct message on Twitter after the follower told him that he needed to come back stronger and quicker during the season

Due to all the injuries he's suffered in recent years, Stoudemire must catch hell from fans on Twitter. But with that being said, what one fan said to him here didn't really even warrant a response, let alone one that included a gay slur. Stoudemire apologized for using it but not before the fan put his DM on Twitter for the whole world to see.

Date: 8/25/2013
Who: Larry Sanders, Milwaukee Bucks
The fail: Throwing a photo of a new tattoo that he got on Instagram, only to have his Instagram followers tell him that the tattoo was misspelled

What more is there really to say here? Larry, you asked for it, and you certainly RECEIVED it.

Date: 8/13/2012
Who: Eric Williams, Former NBA player
The fail: Laughing on Twitter after he heard the news that Chad Johnson and Evelyn Lozada had been involved in a domestic dispute

Once upon a time, Evelyn made fun of Eric Williams because of the permanent knot that he has on his head. So he returned the favor for clowning her when her husband head-butted her and gave her a knot on her head. Because, you know, domestic violence is so damn funny.

Date: 12/20/2010
Who: Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Clippers
The fail: Having all his dirty laundry exposed by an NBA groupie named Candy Deep Throat who made all sorts of wild accusations about him on Twitter

Honestly, Matt Barnes, you deserve every bit of this public embarrassment. You should be way more focused on your game on the court, and less interested in getting into Twitter spats with a chick named Candy Deep Throat offering up her services via social media.

Date: 3/15/2009
Who: Charlie Villanueva, Detroit Pistons
The fail: Tweeting during halftime of a regular season NBA game

Believe it or not, there was a time when pro sports teams and college programs didn't talk to their players about their use of social media. But Villaneuva was one of the guys who changed that by deciding to take to Twitter at halftime of a game. He didn't get fined for doing it, since the technology was still so new and there weren't any guidelines in place. But he did get an earful from his coach the next day.

Date
Who: Demetrius Byrd, Former NFL player
The fail: Asking his Twitter followers if they thought he was gay because he liked Justin Bieber's song "Baby"

They probably don't think you're gay, Demetrius, but they do think you're an idiot. Apparently the Chargers didn't think Byrd was worth the trouble either, they cut him hours after the tweet. We think, or at least hope, a lesson was learned here.

Date: 5/27/2013
Who: Josh Sale, Tampa Bay Rays minor league player
The fail: Taking to his Facebook account to write about the details of a wild night out at the strip club

At this point, we've seen and heard our fair share of strip club-related fails involving athletes. So we don't get surprised by much. But what in the world was this Rays minor leaguer thinking?! Throwing coins at the stripper is dumb, and posting a Facebook status about it is dumber. He was suspended for doing both a short time later.

Date: 4/22/2013
Who: Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
The fail: Using the term "no homo" in a tweet that he posted to Twitter after listening to a song performed by two of his friends

Come on, Tyler, you're too old to be pulling crap like this. What, are you so insecure that you think if you left out the "no homo" part that people would immediately label you as homosexual? The shallowness, the insensitivity, we just can't.

Date: 4/18/2013
Who: Chris Culliver, San Francisco 49ers
The fail: Screengrabbing a photo of a text message conversation he had in which he used several misogynistic terms and posting it to Instagram, just a few months after he came under fire for making homophobic statements

After the 49ers cornerback made several homophobic statements in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, he was ordered to take some sensitivity classes. And clearly, they really paid off! Errrrrrr...

Date: 11/29/2012
Who: Suso, Spanish football player
The fail: Taking a photo of his Liverpool teammate Jose Enrique while he was having his teeth whitened and writing, "This guy is gay," on Twitter

We're not sure if Suso knew exactly what he was saying when he tweeted this homophobic message to teammate Jose Enrique, but we wouldn't be surprised if the Liverpool youngster only tweeted in his native tongue from now on.

Who: Hulk Hogan, Wrestler
The fail: Retweeting an incredibly inappropriate tweet about his daughter Brooke on Twitter
Date: 6/1/2012

We're going to go out on a limb here and say that the Hulkster didn't actually read this tweet before he retweeted it. At least, we hope he didn't read it. Because if he did, it would be weirder than the time he tweeted out a photo of his daughter with the caption "Brooke's legs." Strange doesn't even begin to describe it.

Who: Ray Rice, Baltimore Ravens
The fail: Admitting that he got out of a ticket for having tinted windows by giving a police officer an autograph for his son on Twitter
Date: 11/8/2010

This is one that Ray should've just chalked up as a silent victory. If you use your stardom to get out of a speeding ticket, you should probably just be thankful and be on your way, but that just wasn't enough for Rice. The former Rutgers back had to take to Twitter to brag about his close call.

Who: Dee Liner, University of Alabama football player
The fail: Putting up a photo of him and a couple of his friends holding large sums of money on Instagram along with the hashtag #StruggleOverWit right before be started attending Alabama
Date: 7/29/2013

In 2013, college athletes are under a microscope when it comes to compliance with the NCAA by-laws and trying to avoid NCAA violations. But you wouldn't know that by looking at Liner's Instagram post. Even though he's a college athlete and he doesn't, you know, get paid, it looks like he had plenty of cash coming in prior to playing his first college football game. He either had one hell of a summer job or...well, we'll let you figure it out. Let's just say this was not the way he was hoping to open up his career at Alabama.

Who: Jose Canseco, Former MLB player
The fail: Attempting to compare himself to Babe Ruth on Twitter
Date: 10/21/2011

Maybe you should just stop talking? Running your mouth in person, in books, and now on social media hasn't gotten you anywhere. Don't ever, ever compare yourself to the all-time leader in single-season slugging percentage, and a man who is synonymous with the game of baseball. Don't wear those see-through shirts either, it's creepy as hell.

Who: Ray Allen, Miami Heat
The fail: Sending a sexually explicit tweet to a female on Twitter that he meant to send in a direct message
Date: 3/17/2010

Cue the, 'my account got hacked,' excuse. The coolest part about this Ray Allen tweet had to be the aftermath, in which several outlets polled their readers over whether or not they believed Allen's account was actually hacked. We have a sneaking suspicion that Ray joins the growing list of athletes who struggle to differentiate between a tweet and a direct message.

Who: Mike Wallace, Miami Dolphins
The fail: Reacting to the news about Jason Collins coming out as a gay man by making several homophobic statements on Twitter
Date: 4/29/2013

Just when we think we're making progress in this country with Jason Collins coming out about his homosexuality, there is always that dude to peg us back a few. In this case, speedster Mike Wallace ran his mouth about how he doesn't understand how a man can't be attracted to a woman. We'd explain Mike, but we think it would go right over your head.

Who: LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles
The fail: Getting into a really nasty Twitter beef with the mother of his child for all the world to see and referring to her as a "BUM" and a "waste of life"
Date: 1/26/2013

Taking to Twitter to berate the mother of your child is about as classless and shameful as it gets. Lesean "Shady" McCoy lived up to every bit of his name during this Twitter tirade, and he should probably reevaluate many of his life choices up to this point. Where you at, CutonDime25?

Who: Larry Johnson, Former NFL player
The fail: Throwing shots at someone who disrespected him on Twitter by making a reference to his "fag pic" and calling him as a "Christopher street boy"
Date: 10/25/2009

Athletes' Twitter mentions are routinely FILLED with hate. Whether they do good or bad on the field or court, there's always going to be someone out there with something slick to say. And most of them do a good job of ignoring the trolls on Twitter. Not Larry Johnson, though. He got so upset at one fan who was tweeting at him, that he let him have it. And in the process, he made not one, but two different homophobic remarks that landed him in trouble. Horrible comebacks, bruh.

Who: Miguel Torres, MMA fighter
The fail: Making a really weird reference to a "rape van" on Twitter
Date: 12/7/2011

Rape is too often used in a joking manner today, whether it is via social media, or in a conversation with friends. We need to get past this and realize how serious of an offense rape really is, just because it seems to happen way more than it should doesn't mean we can just make insensitive jokes about it. Figure it out, Miguel.

Who: Anna Welker, Wes Welker's wife
The fail: Blasting Ray Lewis in a Facebook post and calling him out for having "6 kids 4 wives" and for being "acquitted for murder"
Date: 1/21/2013

We get it: Mrs. Welker wasn't happy when her husband's team, the New England Patriots, lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the 2013 AFC Championship Game. But did she really need to resort to this? Outside of the fact that just about everyone knows that Lewis was involved in a murder case more than a decade ago, her Facebook status came across as petty and made her look like a sore loser. She issued an apology. But an apology didn't erase this fail from our brains.

Who: Kareem Jackson, Houston Texans
The fail: Throwing up a photo of him at his first cockfight in the Dominican Republic on Twitter
Date: 3/8/2011

We understand that cock fighting is legal in the Dominican Republic, but have you ever heard of Michael Vick, Kareem? Any sort of animal abuse, legal or not, is just a no-go area. How are we ever going to get better if we just keep making the same mistakes?

Who: Troy Aikman, Former NFL player
The fail: Sending a flirtatious tweet to actress Mari Morrow on Twitter that he meant to send as a direct message
Date: 6/6/2013

How many fails can you fit into 140 characters? Aikman may have set a new world record here. Fail #1: He attempted to send a direct message incorrectly and ended up sending it out to all of his Twitter followers. Fail #2: He tried to send a direct message to @Mari_Morrow, but instead sent it to @Mari_Marrow. And fail #3: He used an emoticon. NFL HALL OF FAME PLAYERS DON'T USE EMOTICONS, BRO! This was a fail for the ages.

Who: Floyd Mayweather, Boxer
The fail: Posting a meme on Instagram that poked fun at Oscar De La Hoya's stint in rehab and his battle with substance abuse
Date: 9/16/2013

There was just no need, Floyd. You make too much money to be engaging in this sort of shameful behavior. We really don't want to hear how your account got hacked, or how the post was unauthorized, just say you took it a little too far.

Who: Devin Thomas, Former NFL player
The fail: Getting caught sleeping during a Washington Redskins team meeting in a photo that was put out on Twitter
Date: 10/8/2010

The former 'Skins wide receiver wasn't the first NFL player to ever fall asleep during a team meeting. In fact, we imagine that most NFL team meetings are sort of like high school history classes, with half the room knocked out or, at the very least, fighting to keep their eyes open. But Thomas was the first dude to have a photo of him sleeping during a team meeting posted to Twitter. And because he got cut a short time later, he was also the last...

Who: Ryan Spadola, Former Lehigh University/NFL football player
The fail: Using the N-word in a tweet that was sent out to one of his Twitter followers while discussing an opposing team
Date: 12/2/2011

Damn, kid, what were you thinking when you put the entire Twitter world on notice that you're a racist? You think Spadola and Riley Cooper call one another for Klan meet...we mean to go grab a bite to eat?

Who: Michael Beasley, Miami Heat
The fail: Snapping a shot of a new tattoo on his back and accidentally forgetting to remove a baggie containing marijuana that was located on a table nearby and included in the TwitPic
Date: 8/21/2009

An NBA player smoking weed? GASP! Okay, okay, so the fact that Beasley--a.k.a. Super Cool Beas--enjoyed smoking weed wasn't all that surprising. What was surprising, though, was that Beasley was actually dumb enough to take a photo of his new tattoo without first making sure that a small baggie of weed wasn't included in the photo. Just think: If Beasley had moved two or three steps to the left or asked his weed carrier to aim a little higher, this never would have happened. D'oh!

Who: Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks
The fail: Offering $5000 to any of his Twitter followers willing to find Kat Stacks and slap her in her "pigeon face"
Date: 8/29/2010

Look, if you want to put an Internet bounty out on some professional groupie, then by all means go for it. However, don't come back with some lameass excuse that your account got hacked while you were overseas shooting a movie in China.

Who: Marcus Vick, Michael Vick's brother
The Fail: Putting a $1,000 bounty on Riley Cooper's head on Twitter after a video surfaced of him using the N-word
Date: 7/31/2013

Remember when Marcus Vick actually made headlines for playing sports? Um, yeah, us either. It feels like the only time we mention his name now is when he runs his mouth on Twitter and says something stupid. And this was easily one of the dumbest things he ever said on Twitter. Being pissed off at Riley Cooper for using the N-word is one thing. But putting a bounty on the guy's head just one year after an entire NFL team was decimated by "Bountygate"? That just isn't very smart. Talk to your bro, Michael.

Who: Paul Bissonnette, Phoenix Coyotes
The fail: Taking a photo of his teammate Raffi Torres dressed up in blackface as Jay Z on Halloween and posting it on Twitter
Date: 10/30/2011

Oh, Raffi Torres is a big Jay Z fan? So now people have no reason to be offended, right? Dressing up as your favorite rapper is all well and good on Halloween, but this is just taking it one step too far. Where's the spray tan excuse?

Who: Stephanie Rice, Australian Olympic swimmer
The fail: Writing "Suck on that faggots!" on Twitter after Australia beat South Africa in a rugby match
Date: 9/5/2010

We're all for showing off your patriotism and cheering on your nation's teams. But if you're going to do it, don't do it like this, please. Ms. Rice could have chosen any number of nouns to put into this tweet. But instead, she chose the one that she did and, a short time later, she lost a very lucrative deal that she had with Jaguar. Suck on that, Twitter failure!

Who: Cappie Pondexter, New York Liberty
The fail: Jumping on Twitter and blaming a tsumani that took place in Japan on God's feelings towards Japanese people
Date: 3/12/2011

Trying to draw a correlation between Peal Harbor in 1941, and a devastating tsunami in 2001, seems like god was storing this one up for a while. Honestly, what the hell were you thinking, Cappie? You want to apologize to anyone you "may" have offended? You didn't realize your "words could be interpreted" in such a manner? We give up.

Who: Marcus Jordan, Michael Jordan's son
The fail: Propositioning an adult film star named Rachel Roxxx on Twitter through a tweet that he meant to send as a private message
Date: 5/30/2012

Shortly after MJ's son sent this tweet out, he deleted it and then claimed that "everybody that knows me knows I would never send an 'Accidental' tweet like that...Whoever it was, nice prank tho." We would have given him the benefit of the doubt, but he said the same exact thing a year later when he "accidentally" sent out a dick pic on Twitter. He's either really bad at Twitter or needs to stop hanging around people who like to get him into trouble on Twitter. Either way, he's a repeat offender when it ones to social media fails.

Who: Paraskevi "Voula" Papachristou, Greek Olympic triple jumper
The fail: Sending out a tweet that featured a tasteless, racist "joke" just a couple of weeks before the 2012 Summer Olympics
Date: 7/12/2012

Ah, the Olympics. The one time that people can put aside their differences, regardless of age, gender, or race, and actually get along. The one time that...wait a second. Did Papachristou really just tweet that?! Yes, she did. And her poor attempt at making a bad joke ended up getting her kicked off the Greek Olympic team just weeks before she was going to go out and represent her country. What a waste of four long years of training.

Who: Yuri Wright, University of Colorado football player
The fail: Sending out a number of incredibly sexual tweets on Twitter and talking about the time his dad drove by a Jewish woman and splashed her with water-just as he was being recruited by a bunch of big college football programs
Date: 12/15/2011

At the end of 2011, Wright had a ton of big-time college football programs looking at him. It was pretty clear that he was going to get a full scholarship to one of them to play football. But then, colleges got wind of the things he liked to tweet about in his spare time and-no surprise here-they lost interest. He did eventually accept a scholarship to Colorado. But when is the last time you heard the name "Yuri Wright" on SportsCenter for something he did on the football field? Exactly.

Who: Jamal Shuman, Former Elon University football player
The fail: Complaining about his playing time at Elon on Twitter, because he didn't know that people who weren't following him could read his tweets
Date: 10/28/2011

These days, everyone knows exactly how Twitter works. Er, well, at the very least, everyone knows that whatever you tweet can and will be used against you later. But apparently, Shuman--a running back for Elon--didn't know that back in 2011 when he took to Twitter after his team's 48-28 loss to Wofford College and went off about his lack of touches during the game. He thought that the only people who could see his tweets were his followers. So he must have been awfully surprised when his tweets started spreading like wildfire and eventually got him into a ton of trouble. What in the world were you thinking, dude?!