The Most Disappointing Final Seasons in Recent Sports History

Every athlete, no matter how great or how insignificant their professional careers in athletics (or semi-pro, or college, or high school), eventually gets to a point where he or she will ask themselves, "Damn, this is what it's come down to?" Injuries happen, bodies age, and the will to "shake it off" after enough hits, punches, or kicks absorbed just isn't there anymore. For some athletes, those symptoms sneak up on them, crippling careers where a second prime could've been possible.

We're all creatures of habit, and expecting a great professional athlete to walk away from the lifestyle they're accustomed to, whether their priorities lay on or off the field, is difficult. It's hard to walk away. But for athletes like Brett Favre, Mike Tyson, and Karl Malone—guys who've endured less-than-storybook endings to their careers—knowing when to hang it up would've saved them a whole heap of hurt. Along with Favre, Tyson, and Malone, see who else is included in The Most Disappointing Final Seasons in Recent Sports History.

Ron Artest

Year: 2014

Team: New York Knicks

Stats: 4.8 PTS, 2.0 REB, 0.6 AST, 0.8 STL, 0.3 BLK

The Knicks expected solid contribution from Metta World Peace in 2013 (sidebar: can we just call him Ron Artest now that he’s 1. Out of the NBA, and 2. Is now known as “Panda Friend?"). After averaging 12.4 PPG and 5 RPG for the Lakers the previous season, the Knicks needed World Peace to give them some physicality and rebounding from the perimeter.

He was released by February (the Knicks were 21-35 by then), making his time with the Knicks short, but apparently not short enough–a fan was able to scrap together more than two minutes of World Peace’s best plays as a Knick.

Chad Ochocinco

Year: 2011-2012

Team: New England Patriots, Cut by Miami Dolphins

Stats: 15 REC, 276 yards, TD

After a season in New England (when many of us thought he was already retired) Ochocinco tried a comeback with the Dolphins, headbutted his newlywed wife Evelyn Lozada in training camp, and then got awkwardly cut on camera for Hard Knocks without a hint of the charisma and personality that made him both a media and fan favorite.

Brandon Roy

Year: 2012

Team: Minnesota Timberwolves

Stats: 5.8 PTS, 4.6 AST, 2.8 REB

The Trail Blazers gotta stop giving their franchise to guys whose legs can't stand up to an NBA grind. One-time all-world small forward Brandon Roy differs from Sam Bowie or Greg Oden, though, because Roy was a legitimate franchise player for a minute. Until his degenerative knee condition took control of his career, Roy averaged 20.2 PPG, 5 APG, 4.6 RPG, and shot 46.7 percent from the field from 2007 to 2010.

Yet, like Bowie and Oden, Roy's health problems could be traced back to his early college days at Washington, where he'd have to come off the bench in some games just to keep his knees pain-free. Roy's knees had always bothered him, but it wasn't until a torn meniscus and subsequent surgeries that the aggregate damage became literally crippling. Roy had no cartilage left in his knees by 2011, forcing him to sit-out the 2011-2012 season to either rehab or retire. Roy chose to rehab.

Experimental knee treatments had Roy billed as a “rejuvenated” player coming into the 2012-2013 season, but that fell apart quickly. In 122 minutes of NBA action, Roy’s knees began acting up again, and he hasn’t been able to play since.

Steve Nash

Year: 2014

Team: Los Angeles Lakers

Stats: DNP

This is not so much a disappointing final season as a disappointing final contract. Kobe's teammate was limited to just 65 games during the past two years and that's before the news broke that he'd miss this season due to a back injury caused by carrying his luggage. We hate to say it, but the former MVP leaving meekly out the league's back door is a perfect metaphor for the current state of the Lakers. When Nash arrived to SoCal there was so much hope, so much promise and then—BOOM!—there suddenly wasn't.

Randy Moss

Year: 2012

Team: San Francisco 49ers

Stats: 28 REC, 434 YDS, 3 TD

Randy Moss, in his heyday, was a tremendously gifted receiver. His tall, lanky frame, elite hops, and sprinter speed made him a prototype for elite NFL wide-outs. Those ups and that speed, however, fell off quickly as Moss aged into this 30s. In 2010, he played for three different teams during the 16-game season, scrapping together just more than a quarter of his 1,264 receiving yardage total from the season before. He took 2011 off, and with a renewed focus for one of the NFL's best teams, his 2012 season with the 49ers was supposed to be more of a throwback year for Moss. Colin Kaepernick became his quarterback mid-season, and the only competition ahead in the depth chart was Michael Crabtree and Mario Manningham. Moss could've been a big-play threat for the eventual Super Bowl runners-up, but he only averaged 27.1 yards per game, and despite being 4th on the team in targets, he only hauled in 28 catches.

Moss actually declined to try-out for the Seahawks after they traded Percy Harvin, but his itch to play as a 37-year-old is still there. Just last week, he said he’d consider playing again if a quarterback like Peyton Manning called him up. Well, yeah, no shit.

Rafael Palmeiro

Year: 2005

Team: Baltimore Orioles

Stats: .266/.339/.447, 18 HR, 60 RBI

Palmeiro's numbers in his final campaign weren't terrible, but the way he went out certainly was. As the 2005 season approached, baseball finally had to face its swept-under-the-rug secret of players using performance-enhancing drugs. Rafael Palmeiro was 40-years-old and looking to wrap-up the tail end of a quietly brilliant career. Before Opening Day he was summoned in front of Congress to testify on his alleged use of steroids.

Sporting an enviable mustache, Palmeiro defiantly wagged his finger at the committee and stated in the most confident manner possible, “let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.” Then, as if in a sitcom that skipped ahead to "four months later," he became the first big-name player suspended after testing positive for stanozolol, a "potent anabolic steroid." He returned to the lineup on August 14th, also known as (we shit you not) “Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day.” It was understandably canceled.

Shaun Alexander

Year: 2008

Team: Washington Redskins

Stats: 11 ATT, 24 YDS, 0 TD

Shaun Alexander is the exact reason why fantasy owners, head coaches, and team executives are so wary about trusting feature running backs year-to-year. After running the ball 370 times for 1,880 yards and 27 TDs in 2005 (after four straight seasons of 295-plus rushing attempts), Alexander's next three seasons combined didn't even come close to his 2005 numbers. He was still fed the ball over 2000 times in 2006 and 2007, but his YPA dropped to less than 3.6, and his lateral quickness was shot. He spent his final season in Washington as a third-string back, finishing with a mere 33 total yards from scrimmage.

Tracy McGrady

Year: 2013 (Playoffs only)

Team: San Antonio Spurs

Stats: 31 MIN, 0-7 FG, 0 PTS

After a relatively stable run in Houston, McGrady bounced to three different teams in just two seasons before traveling to the other side of the world to hoop in China (which was seemingly the sad conclusion of his NBA career). He was simply another star player brought down by a litany of injuries, which is always a bummer. But then McGrady prolonged the agony of seeing your childhood stars breakdown by accepting a contract in the final days of the 2012-2013 season so he'd be eligible for the Spurs' playoff run. It seemed to be San Antonio's attempt to give him a lifetime achievement award and was basically the professional equivalent of giving every kid a trophy just for trying.

Rich Gannon

Year: 2004

Team: Oakland Raiders

Stats: 524 YDS, 3 TD, 2 INT

If you don’t know who Rich Gannon is, or don’t remember what he did, then you don’t remember the last time the Raiders played good football. After throwing for more than 4,600 yards and 25 TDs en route to a Super Bowl appearance (and blowout at the hands of the Buccaneers) in 2002, Gannon sucked the following year.

The Raiders started 2-5, Gannon saw 100 passing yards fall off his per game average, and he was benched in favor of Rick Mirer by mid-season. The Raiders finished 4-12, and Gannon was relegated to back-up duty behind an already 32-year-old Kerry Collins the following season. The Raiders went 5-11, and Gannon retired in the offseason.

Manny Ramirez

Year: 2011

Team: Tampa Bay Rays

Stats: 1-17, 1 RBI

Manny's not technically retired, but his odds of returning to the field are pretty much equal to any of ours. Besides, the Manny Ramirez we were used to has ceased to exist since 2008. Still, he did what almost everyone does and continued to bounce from team-to-team in the throes of his career. In 2011, a young Tampa Bay Rays team signed ManRam expecting him to be a veteran leader. The team started 0-6, Manny got popped for PEDs and appeared to opt to retire instead of serving the mandatory 50-game suspension. That Rays team then won the wild card on the last game of the season, even without that allegedly valuable "veteran leadership" component Manny was to provide.

LaDainian Tomlinson

Year: 2011

Team: New York Jets

Stats: 75 ATT, 280 YDS, 1 TD

LaDainian Tomlinson’s career as a Jet mirrors Emmitt Smith’s last days as a Cardinal in a couple ways: Both were legendary backs who had nothing to prove and little left in the tank. But Tomlinson was ring-chasing on those Jets teams. And, believe it or not, the 2010 Jets were coming off of an AFC Conference Championship appearance and had Super Bowl aspirations. Tomlinson’s prime with a series of good-to-great-but-never-championship-worthy Chargers teams didn’t net him a title, and the Jets were his last shot.

Tomlinson’s first year as a Jet ended as AFC runner-ups (again), and in his final season, he was relegated to third-down receiving back duties as the Jets lost their final three games and missed the playoffs.

Stephon Marbury

Year: 2008-2009

Team: Boston Celtics

Stats: 3.8 PTS, 3.3 AST, .342 FG

We don't have a time machine to fully verify, but it'd be hard to imagine that there was a more toxic name in the NBA than Stephon Marbury after his ridiculously shitty tenure in the Big Apple. Somehow, after alienating three separate coaches and being labeled "the most reviled athlete in New York," Marbury still hadn't hit his low point. That moment finally came late in 2008 when Marbury was banned from attending games and practices, and his contract was bought out by the Knicks. He then became a benchwarmer in Boston, rejected their attempts to sign him for the veteran minimum, and then left for China where he became a God.

Donovan McNabb

Year: 2011

Team: Minnesota Vikings

Stats: 1,026 YDS, 4 TD, 2 INT

Donovan McNabb was seen as a quality starting quarterback down to his very last weeks as an effective quarterback. After leaving the Eagles in 2009, McNabb joined their division rivals down in Washington. The Eagles went 10-6, and McNabb’s record as a starter in Washington was 5-8. The following season, the Vikings—still believing that a quarterback would bring them back to the brink of the Super Bowl (as Favre did in 2009) despite an aged and changed roster—signed McNabb to be their New Hope.

The Vikings started the 2011 season 1-5 (McNabb averaged a paltry 171 yards per game as a starter), and rookie first round pick Christian Ponder took McNabb’s last job as an NFL starting quarterback. *facepalm*

Joe Paterno

Year: 2011

Team: Penn State Nittany Lions

Stats: 8-1 (5-0), all wins later vacated

Our single coaching exception was one of the biggest names in the NCAA who went from celebrating a victory against Illinois that sent him past Grambling's Eddie Robinson as the winningest coach in the history of college football to, literally a week later, allegations that he was harboring and protecting a pedophile. There are a million articles on the web where you can debate against Penn State's fan base about whether or not Paterno is deserving of his monumental fall from grace, but we just find it odd that, after all that transpired, he died only a couple of months later.

Posthumously the NCAA vacated his wins, meaning any Penn State victory you watched since 1997 never actually happened. This took away from several of Paterno's milestone victories compiled over the last 15 years of his career. It left him two wins short of 300 and restored Bobby Bowden as the FBS record holder for coaching W's. As for the losses, those still count, which serves as an additional “screw you” to the most erased man in the history of college athletics.

Derek Jeter

Year: 2014

Team: New York Yankees

Stats: .256/.304/.313, 4 HR, 50 RBI, 10 SB

When you wipe away the media-hyped spectacle that was Jeter's final season, you'll realize he was simply a washed-up shortstop who was inexplicably batting in the two-hole for the entire year. You also realize that the Yankees basically used his final run as a marketing opportunity that turned their most important infield position into a “team ambassador” slot. Jeter ended his career on a high-note with a walk-off single in his final game in the Bronx, but when you actually analyze his season, it'd take about 50 more of those to mask the foul stench of that slash line.

Tim Tebow

Year: 2012

Team: New York Jets

Stats: 141 total YDS, 0 TDs

Shout-out to all the in-the-moment Broncos and Jets fans who copped Tim Tebow jerseys. Those are artifacts of another age, for real. It’s an age that no SportsCenter-watching human being ever wants to experience again, but it’s one that we, as American sports fans who never gave two shits about Tim Tebow, lived through.

Tebow joining the Jets was the peak of Tim Tebow, NFL player. He had just beaten the Steelers in the playoffs as the Broncos’ starting quarterback, so while everyone but the Broncos’ John Elway was getting hyped over that (Tebow’s completion percentage during his time as a Broncos’ starter sat at 46.5 percent), Elway signed Peyton Manning and traded Tebow for a seventh-round pick.

As a Jet, Tebow was suppose to spell Mark Sanchez at quarterback to run whatever was deemed effective for Tebow to run. He’d be a change-of-pace—a guy who’d confuse defenses with his dual-threat ability, or at the very least, be a dope touchdown-scoring goal-line wildcat back.

The Jets sucked, Sanchez sucked, and Tebow (who also super sucked) suited up for one game despite having two broken ribs. And that’s all Tebow’s NFL career wrote.

Karl Malone

Year: 2003-2004

Team: Los Angeles Lakers

Stats: 13.2 PTS, 8.7 REB, 3.9 AST, 1.2 STL, 0.5 BLK

At 40-years-old Karl Malone was starting and playing 32 effective minutes per night for the Shaq-and-Kobe-Era Lakers. Still, it wasn't the ending Malone signed up for. After watching Michael Jordan basically win everything during the 90s, Malone was able to outlast the Great One and contend for titles into his AARP years. The 2003 Lakers were supposed to guarantee him one. Despite missing the second half of the season with a knee injury, Malone returned in time for the playoffs. His defense and rebounding in the playoffs proved to be critical against Tim Duncan's Spurs and Latrell Sprewell's Timberwolves, but another knee injury severely hampered his performance in the Finals. It forced him to sit out the deciding Game 5, which the Lakers lost to the Pistons.

The next season, Malone decided not to return to the Lakers because of his sour relationship with Kobe (Shaq felt the same way and skipped town too), and retired ringless.

Emmitt Smith

Year: 2004

Team: Arizona Cardinals

Stats: 267 ATT, 937 YDS, 9 TD

Emmitt Smith didn’t have to play those final two seasons in Arizona. He had already broken Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record and was joining a Cardinals team that had gone 5-11 the previous season. Emmitt, why? Knowing what he now knows about head trauma and concussions, he probably wishes that he had hung it up after leaving Dallas.

Actually, he definitely regrets it. In July 2013, he admitted that his “soul for the game left” as soon as he returned to Texas Stadium as an opposing player three games into his first year with the Cardinals. Then why play another 20 sucky games for a sucky team, Emmitt? With no “soul” left in football, Smith’s last two seasons served as just another few hundred opportunities for Smith to get his bell rung.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Year: 2010

Team: Seattle Mariners

Stats: .184/.250/.204, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 2 XBH

After his massive contract with the Reds expired, Junior returned to the city that made him the face of baseball in the '90s. The nostalgia of seeing him on the field again for the Mariners was short-lived. He reportedly fell asleep in the clubhouse (causing him to miss a pinch-hit appearance) and played only 33 games before retiring in the midst of the 2010 season.

As a White Sox fan I got to witness a substantial portion of Griffey's two-month stint on the Southside in 2008. In that time I only have two memories of him in a Sox uniform. Yes, I remember him getting blown away by a mid-90s fastball to end the Sox's playoff run. But even more depressing was seeing Junior miss a diving catch in the outfield that, on the replay, I could see Griffey's gut jiggle like a perpetual motion machine in slo-mo. Every ripple, every roll, slowly bobbled and served as a nauseating reminder that no matter how freakishly athletic you are, you can never defeat Father Time.

Jerry Rice

Year: 2004

Team: Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks and (almost) the Denver Broncos.

Stats: 30 REC, 429 YDS, 3 TD

The greatest player in the history of the NFL (according to NFL Network) and by nature the best wide receiver of all time jumped from team to team before an obligatory (and otherwise pointless) one-day contract with the 49ers that allowed him to “retire as a member of the franchise.” Basically, Rice faced the choice of leaving in his prime (like Seinfeld), or lingering on in an unrecognizable form (like The Simpsons). When you're set for life, you can linger, it's just sad to watch for people who remember your glory days.

After a couple solid seasons in Oakland, Rice was dealt north to the Seahawks. In his final game (which was appropriately in the playoffs), Rice went without a single catch (which was not appropriate) as the 'Hawks were bounced in the wild card round. He then signed a deal with the Denver, where he was buried on the depth chart by guys you forgot about like Ashley Lelie, David Terrell and Charlie Adams. Instead of suffering that indignity, he retired in training camp. He then signed that aforementioned illustrative contract with the Niners for $1,985,806.49, which symbolized the year he was drafted, his number, the year he retired and his team.

For the rest of us, it just symbolized a shit-ton of money for doing nothing.

Landon Donovan

Year: 2014

Team: USMNT

Stats: N/A

Landon Donovan is turning in another banner year for the L.A. Galaxy. He scored 10 goals and dished out 19 assists in the 2014 regular season, and two days ago he recorded his first career playoff hat-trick. This isn’t an American player who should be retiring from MLS play yet, but at the end of this MLS campaign, he is. He’s won the damn MLS Cup five times already, has six MLS Best XI appearances, and one MLS MVP. Landon Donovan’s MLS career, at this point, serves all the people who’d benefit from Donovan playing more than Donovan himself.

What makes Donovan’s final season as a professional soccer player so disappointing is the simple fact that he didn’t make the United States’ roster for this last World Cup. He got cut. Donovan’s greatness isn’t solely dependent on his USMNT achievements, but let’s face it: his legacy is. Staying at home to play mid-2000s MLS ball is a fraction of what’s made Donovan’s career. His ownership over the United States’ goal-scoring and assist records and this goal are what people will really remember.

Frankly, he was robbed of a chance to add to that USMNT legacy this summer by Jurgen Klinsmann’s World Cup squad selection. For that to happen in his final season as a pro is, well, disappointing. Donovan said it himself too: “I was looking forward to playing in Brazil and, as you can imagine, I am very disappointed with today’s decision.”

Tribute game aside, that World Cup decision soured Donovan’s last days in ways that cannot be understated.

Brett Favre

Year: 2010

Team: Minnesota Vikings

Stats: 217-358 (60.6%), 2509 YDS, 11 TD, 19 INT, 69.9 QB Rating

We don't begrudge Brett Favre's comebacks to either the Jets or the Vikings, because he actually was a competent quarterback who should've been out there regardless of his age. Look at his numbers in 2009, his first season in Minnesota was the best campaign of his career. People unfairly talk about his old guy cock more than that. Sure, it still ended with him making a terrible across-his-body throw that prematurely ended the Vikings season as they tripped on the final straightaway to their path to the Super Bowl, but it was certainly still one of the greatest “old-man seasons” in the history of sports.

The next year a team of delegates from the Vikings franchise flew down to Mississippi to convince him of a third “un-retirement” in a futile attempt to finish the championship run. So how did that work out? Terribly. He couldn't duplicate (or even come close to) his success. He finished 5-8 as a starter throwing up jump balls to another player on this list (Randy Moss). It all came to a terribly anticlimactic halt when Favre got his head bounced off the frozen Minnesota turf (pictured above) on a Monday Night game that officially (and conclusively) ended his career once and for all.

Mike Tyson

Year: 2005

Team: N/A

Stats: N/A

Two years after his last professional win, Mike Tyson gave up. Literally. One of boxing's greatest straight-up quit before the start of the seventh round in a 2005 fight against journeyman-nobody fighter Kevin McBride. Said the then-38-year-old: “I'm not going to fight again. I haven't got the fighting guts or the heart any more. I was just fighting to pay off the bills. I'm not an animal anymore.”