20 Sports People Who Had a Worse Year Than You

You'll never see anyone get posterized quite like Knight got posterized by DeAndre Jordan in March. It was so bad that it ruined Knight's entire year—and maybe his entire career. Poor guy.

When 2013 started, Te'o was on top of the world. His Notre Dame Fighting Irish were 12-0 and set to play in the BCS National Championship. He was widely considered to be a surefire top-five pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. And despite the unfortunate death of his longtime girlfriend Lennay Kekua in September 2012, Te'o's personal life all seemed to be in order. But then, Notre Dame got crushed by Alabama in the BCS title game. Te'o's draft stock tumbled. And worst of all, Deadspin revealed that his girlfriend wasn't real in an investigative piece that they published in mid-January. Rather, Te'o had been the victim of an incredibly elaborate online hoax. So while he did end up getting drafted by the San Diego Chargers in April, he still endured one of the most difficult years of anyone on this list.

In 2012, McIlroy was given the PGA's Player of the Year award. And when he won it, Sports Illustrated posed the question, "What will the kid do for an encore?" At the time, the answers seemed limitless, and McIlroy was already drawing comparisons to Tiger Woods due to his dominance last year. But this year, the answer to that question was simple: Nothing. McIlroy did nothing. He didn't win a major. He didn't qualify for the Tour Championship. And he actually walked off the course in the middle of a tournament because of a toothache in March. It was bad. Real bad. And now it has people asking, "Will the kid from 2012 ever return?" We're betting he will. But people aren't talking about him and Tiger Woods in the same breath anymore.

Back in May, things were going so well for Garcia. He was tied for the lead at the 2013 Players Championship and appeared to be ready to win the tournament. But then, he hit three balls into the water on the 17th and 18th holes and ended up finishing tied for eight. And his troubles didn't stop there, either, as a short time after the tourney ended, Garcia got into a very public spat with Tiger Woods that featured both players throwing insults at one another. That spat ended two weeks later when Garcia attended a dinner at the European Open and said that he would "have [Tiger] 'round every night" at the U.S. Open and "serve fried chicken." The beef between the two—and Garcia's chances at having a successful year—ended then and there.

If it weren't for Alex Rodriguez, Braun would've had the worst year of any player in Major League Baseball. In July, he was suspended for the remaining 65 games of the 2013 MLB regular season and lost $3.25 million because of his ties to the Biogenesis doping clinic. Fortunately for him, A-Rod was later given a 211-game suspension by MLB and that story overshadowed Braun's story. But Ryan's name has still stayed in the news thanks to a public apology that he issued in November and the fact that, unlike A-Rod, he is definitely going to be playing next season. There are still going to be some tough times ahead for him.

Where do we start? A-Rod began 2013 by having arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum that he suffered during the 2012 season. Then, he was one of the many MLB players that was found to have a connection to a doping clinic in Florida called Biogenesis. Next, he returned to the New York Yankees in August but was issued a 211-game suspension by Major League Baseball due to his ties to the Biogenesis clinic. And finally, he spent his entire fall appealing MLB's suspension and trying to clear his name. He even stormed out of a court hearing on the matter and went straight to Pope Francesa and the WFAN to air Bud Selig out. And maybe worst of all, the issue still isn't cleared up. Basically, this year couldn't have gone any worse than it did for A-Rod.

In late October, Martin reportedly suffered an "emotional breakdown" at the Miami Dolphins facility during a lunch break and stormed out of the team's cafeteria after several of his teammates pulled a prank on him. He later revealed that he had been the victim of repeated bullying at the hands of his fellow offensive lineman Incognito and said that Incognito had harassed him through a series of text messages and voice mails throughout 2013. Incognito was suspended for the remainder of the season, while Martin chose to leave the team. And there's a good chance that neither of them will be back with the Dolphins in 2014.

Is it just us, or did the NFL referees really suck—like, really, really suck—during the 2013-14 NFL season? They failed to explain a controversial call at the end of a Patriots/Panthers game. They completely botched a first-down call at the end of a Giants/Redskins game. And one referee even got into a one-sided verbal altercation with a player on the field and cursed at him. We don't know what the NFL needs to do to correct any of this. But they clearly need to do something with their referees before next season.

It was a rough year for a handful of people who work—or in some cases, worked—at ESPN. First Take commentator Rob Parker got canned in January for making controversial statements about Robert Griffin III. Skip Bayless got ethered by Richard Sherman in March. Chris Broussard referred to homosexuality as "an open rebellion to God" in April. NFL analyst Hugh Douglas was fired for getting into a fight with his Numbers Never Lie co-host Michael Smith in August. And Magic Johnson left the Worldwide Leader in Sports under some suspicious circumstances in October. All in all, there were quite a few ESPN employees who made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2013.

Lance Armstrong lied. For years and years and years (and years!), he told us that he did not participate in any doping when he was winning all of those Tour de France titles. But in January, the former cyclist sat down with Oprah Winfrey and revealed that he had cheated and turned to doping during his illustrious career. His problems didn't stop there, either. In addition to the Oprah interview, which essentially exposed him as a fraud, Armstrong was also sued for $100 million by the U.S. Postal Service, his sponsor during his cycling days, in April. Armstrong is paying the price for lying all of those years.

Don't look now, but Kobe's best days may officially be behind him. In 2013, Kobe suffered not one, but two different devastating injuries that left him on the sidelines. First, he suffered a torn Achilles during a game against the Warriors and was ruled out for six to nine months. Then, after returning to the Lakers lineup earlier this month following almost eight months of intense rehab, he suffered a fracture of the lateral tibial plateau in his left knee and was ruled out again. Fortunately, he'll only be out for six weeks this time. But we have to ask: Is Kobe's career over?

You would think that the further he moved away from the infamous "Butt Fumble," the better life would get for the Sanchize. But…nah. In 2013, Sanchez threw interception after interception after interception during Jets' OTAs in the spring. Then, he tried out some weird facial hair in the summer. Then, he lost his job to rookie Geno Smith and ended up injuring his shoulder during a meaningless preseason game in August while playing in a reserve role. And finally, he ended the year by losing a bet and getting cornrows in November. Or in other words, he found every single possible way to fail in 2013.

All it takes is one bad fight to ruin your boxing career. And unfortunately, Broner found that out in December when he was defeated handily by Marcos Maidana in his first defense of his welterweight title. Broner may not recover from it, either. His trainer Mike Stafford just came out and said that Broner will "be back." But Broner's whole persona was built around the fact that he was unbeatable in the ring and could say and do whatever he wanted because of that. And now that his undefeated record is blemished? Well, there may be no coming back from that.

At the beginning of 2013, "The Spider" was widely considered the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. And while he may still go down as the best fighter to ever climb into the Octagon, this year was a complete disaster for him. First, he lost by KO in the second round of a fight against Chris Weidman at UFC 162 in July after he got a little too full of himself in the ring and let his guard down. Then, he lost a rematch against Weidman at UFC 168 last night after severely breaking his leg in the second round of their fight. And now, it's believed that Silva's career could be over. If it is, this is definitely not the way he planned on going out at the top of the year.

Is D-Rose ever going to be the player that we all thought he was going to be in the NBA? Last season, the Chicago Bulls point guard missed the entire year while rehabbing a torn ACL. He finally returned this year to much fanfare. But he only played for a little over 300 minutes during the 2013-14 NBA season before he tore the meniscus in his right knee and was ruled out for this entire season, too. And now, people are starting to seriously wonder if Rose is ever going to be 100 percent again. We're obviously pulling for him, but we can't help but wonder ourselves.

Even though they're trying to make the game safer—almost to a fault—the NFL still has a huge problem on its hands when it comes to concussions. And that's because there are a lot of former players who spent 2013 talking about how their football careers have impacted their post-playing days. Dorsett came out in November and revealed that he was recently diagnosed with signs of CTE, a degenerative brain disease that was likely caused by all of the hits to the head that he took during his time in the NFL. Favre also came out in October and talked about how he forgets a lot of things these days because of the concussions he suffered in the NFL. And the biggest blow to the NFL came in August when the league agreed to pay a group of former players $765 million as part of a settlement in a lawsuit concerning concussions. It's clear that the concussion issue isn't going away anytime soon—and that's bad for both the league and its former players.

Last year, Pistorius a.k.a. The Blade Runner proved to be one of the most inspirational athletes in the world when he became the first double-leg amputee ever to participate in the Summer Olympics. But in February, he tarnished his entire legacy when he allegedly murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Although he has not yet gone on trial in South Africa, police say that Pistorius shot Steenkamp and killed her on Valentine's Day. His trial is set to begin in March of next year.