We assume most athletes don't have to pay for sex. Yet still, there are many who choose to. It's kind of strange if you think about it—after all one of the most oft-repeated perks of being an athlete is the opportunity to sleep with many, many people with little to no effort. Wilt Chamberlain famously claimed to bed 20,000 women in his lifetime. Keep in mind that there are only 365 days in a year. And while Wilt isn't on this list, we bring him up as a starting point to estimate that other athletes find sex pretty easy to come by, too. Even if you're only pulling in one percent of Wilt, that's still 200 people. That brings us back to our confusion of how we were able to find so many athletes shelling out dough for sex that we were able to compile a surprisingly big list.
Also remember, these are just the ones who got caught.
Let this write-up be a warning that paid escorts are a great way to run into an undercover sting. Learn a lesson from Greg Anthony, whose ill-timed arrest gave us the idea to run with this concept before Warren Sapp's arrest yesterday morning made him an afterthought. At least they're not alone. Here's A History of Athletes Who (Allegedly) Solicited Prostitutes.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com
We assume most athletes don't have to pay for sex. Yet still, there are many who choose to. It's kind of strange if you think about it—after all one of the most oft-repeated perks of being an athlete is the opportunity to sleep with many, many people with little to no effort. Wilt Chamberlain famously claimed to bed 20,000 women in his lifetime. Keep in mind that there are only 365 days in a year. And while Wilt isn't on this list, we bring him up as a starting point to estimate that other athletes find sex pretty easy to come by, too. Even if you're only pulling in one percent of Wilt, that's still 200 people. That brings us back to our confusion of how we were able to find so many athletes shelling out dough for sex that we were able to compile a surprisingly big list.
Also remember, these are just the ones who got caught.
Let this write-up be a warning that paid escorts are a great way to run into an undercover sting. Learn a lesson from Greg Anthony, whose ill-timed arrest gave us the idea to run with this concept before Warren Sapp's arrest yesterday morning made him an afterthought. At least they're not alone. Here's A History of Athletes Who (Allegedly) Solicited Prostitutes.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com
Dave Stewart
Year: 1985
He pitched a no-hitter, he made an All-Star team, he won the World Series three times, and once, somewhat ironically, won the Roberto Clemente Award ("best exemplifying the game of baseball"). After he retired he became a successful agent. And now he's the GM for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But before all of that, he got caught soliciting sex from a transvestite prostitute. For what it's worth, it was reported that Stewart didn't know about the whole transvestite issue (i.e. dude's dong) until the cops informed him about it afterward. Whether that made it less humiliating, we don't know but, if nothing else, Stewart's impressive post-arrest resume shows you that you can bounce back from all things; even getting caught in the midst of oral sex with a 6'3" prostitute in the middle of L.A.'s Skid Row section.
James Worthy
Year: 1990
One surprise we hope we never experience in life is the thrill of thinking you're about to get laid, followed by the words "You're under arrest" *knocks on wood*. But that's what happened to Hall of Famer James Worthy back in 1990. Not only was Worthy in the middle of his career, but he was also in-season at the time and just so happened to have a game scheduled mere hours after he was charged. After posting $500 bail, Worthy arrived to a mid-November matchup against the Rockets already in progress. When he entered in the second quarter, the visiting crowd roared. We have no idea if they regretted it later when they found out why he was late.
Derek Bell and Scott Sanders
Year: 1994
In April of 1994, whilst in New York City to play the Mets, Padres teammates Derek Bell and Scott Sanders offered a couple of women $20 for oral sex on a Manhattan street corner. What followed next was pandemonium, not only because they were insulted by such a low offer, but also because they happened to be undercover cops. The two Padres telling the officers they were baseball players did nothing at the time, but about six months later the charges were dropped. Still, the arrest didn't sit well with the Padres brass, who were certainly used to being embarrassed on the field, but not so much off it. After the strike-shortened season officially ended they traded Bell to a city where they apparently applaud johns, a little Texas town we just mentioned called Houston.
Lamar Odom
Year: 1997
We don't know if we have any still-jilted UNLV alum who frequent this site or not, but Lamar Odom was originally slated to be a Runnin' Rebel for the 1997-98 basketball season. The only problem is, Sports Illustrated snitched on his suspiciously high ACT score. Also he was slapped with a citation for soliciting an undercover 5-0 in Las Vegas (this was an era before everything that happened there stayed there). He then transferred to a state that could barely fit him and played one year on the court for Rhode Island. Now some could make the fairly easy observation about how Lamar's taste in women never really changed. But come on, man. Don't you think there's been enough cracks at the Kardashians' expense?
Eugene Robinson
Year: 1999
Earlier in the NFL's final meaningful weekend Eugene had received the Bart Starr Award for the NFLer who "best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community." In less than 24 hours he would play in Super Bowl 33. In between, he got popped for trying to pay a hooker $40 to blow him. It's a perfect example on how making poor decisions can drag your life down. Both honors were negatively affected by his desire to get off. He agreed to return the award and then (due to lack of sleep) performed terribly on the world's biggest stage. Rod Smith dusted him for an 80-yard touchdown catch and he missed a tackle on Terrell Davis that led to another score. No matter what goal-line calls Pete Carroll condones, he can never hold a candle to Eugene Robinson's wretched Super Bowl weekend of 1999.
Darryl Strawberry
Year: 1999
Coming off his most productive season since the early '90s (not to mention coming back from colon cancer), Darryl Strawberry was prepping himself for the upcoming '99 season. But before the first pitch could even be hurled he was caught offering a prostitute $50 for sex in Tampa, FL. Actually, most of that background is true, except replace the word "prostitute" with "cop" and then you pretty much see the problem. Unfortunately, every time we do one of these lists it seems like Darryl Strawberry is on it, he's one member of a long line of professional athletes whose downfall was attributed to self-inflicted problems. Unlike most of those athletes he still had a very respectable career. When you consider he was an eight-time All-Star despite being addicted to drugs throughout his playing days, you realize how freakishly gifted he truly was.
Kevin Stevens
Denny Neagle
The 2005 Minnesota Vikings
Year: 2005
With cornerback Fred Smoot acting as the lead organizer, various members of the 2005 Minnesota Vikings were discovered to have rented a party boat on Lake Minnetonka that included some pretty explicit entertainment. Flying in exotic dancers all the way from Atlanta, the former Vikings engaged in numerous sexual activities with the women before the boat's disgusted captain eventually cut the trip short. Smoot and his teammate, Bryant McKinnie, ended up taking the brunt of the fallout. Both were charged with criminal disorderly conduct, while then-head coach, Mike Tice, was eventually fired after the team's season ended, having both failed to make the playoffs and maintain any sort of discipline. "Any sort of discipline" of course being PR speak for preventing his players from publicly fucking on a boat.
Zach Randolph
The Czech National Soccer Team
Andray Blatche
Ronaldo
Alex Rodriguez
Lawrence Taylor
Year: 2010
For many players on this list, these moments represent a low-point in their lives. For Lawrence Taylor, it's probably closer to somewhere in the middle. Not only did the public find out that LT was paying for sex, but the girl involved also turned out to be 16. Fuck. Sentenced to six years probation as part of a plea agreement, Taylor was also registered as a level-one sex offender for his crime. The former Giant will always be known for his wrecking ball style of play during his days in the league but, unfortunately, he's taken the same approach to his personal life at pretty much any opportunity.
Peter Crouch
Wayne Rooney
The Mexican U-22 Soccer Team
Mario Balotelli
Greg Raymer
Year: 2013
You may say, "Poker! FOH, that's not a sport!" But it used to be on ESPN2 for roughly 17 hours a day so that's good enough for us. Raymer, who won five millions dollars at the 2004 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship, was busted alongside five other men in Wake Forest, NC and charged with prostitution as well as "crimes against nature," (whatever that means). Now, we don't try to stereotype people, but look above. Let's just say we're not shocked.
Quentin Groves
Year: 2013
Former Browns (and current Titans) linebacker, Quentin Groves, isn't the type of guy that you see making headlines every Sunday and, honestly, if not for his arrest concerning a prostitution sting back in 2013, we probably still wouldn't know who he is. In April of that year, Groves found himself getting attention for all the wrong reasons when he was taken in by an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. Tough break for Groves, but when you've played for Cleveland (and Jacksonville, and Oakland and Tennessee and man, this guys played on a lot of bad teams), you're probably used to dealing with public shame and ridicule. In fact, given the choice of being outed to friends and family as johns, or playing for this years Titans, many of us would probably go the johns route.
Greg Anthony
Year: 2015
He played in the NBA for over a decade, and was well on his way to the 10-year mark as a color commentator. But, whilst in Washington, DC to call a Michigan State/Maryland game last month, Anthony responded to an ad in the "escort section" of Backpage.com. From there it didn't take long until he was arrested in a sting at the Doubletree Hotel (after offering $80 to a woman for sex). When she asked if he "wanted her to dress up," he responded "oh yeah." Usually that's a cue for the Kool-Aid Man to bust his ass through your wall and, had that happened, we imagine Anthony would've actually been less surprised. As it is, it just signaled cops to enter the room and make the arrest. After his employers found out, both Turner Sports and CBS suspended him indefinitely, meaning it's unlikely that Anthony will be hitting that 10-year milestone as an announcer.
Warren Sapp
Year: 2015
We actually had this list planned out already before Warren Sapp got popped yesterday morning after the Super Bowl. Had he simply held off for a day, he wouldn't be lumped with the rest of these guys. Sapp's indiscretion came shortly after covering the Big Game for NFL Network, and within less than eight hours NFL.com wiped away any memory of him, instead replacing his bio page with an ominous "page not found" dead end. A few minutes after that, it was reported that he was fired. #LifeComesAtYouFast