Dumbest Moments in Sports

The favorite SI story thread happened to coincide with my going through a lot of the older issues I have stored in my closet over the years. I thought people would get a kick out of the Top 10 list of dumbest sports moments they published in their 50th anniversary issue in 2004. And, feel free to add a multitude of events since then that would trump any of these:

10. Vikings trade five players and eight draft picks for Herschel Walker.
9. Eugene Robinson gets busted for prostitution the night before the Super Bowl, and right after getting a "morality" award.
8. Ten-cent beer night in Cleveland in 1974.
7. CART-IRL split in 1996.
6. Tyson biting Holyfield's ear.
5. The XFL.
4. Van de Velde's meltdown at the 1999 British Open.
3. Robin Ventura vs. Nolan Ryan.
2. Blazers draft Sam Bowie.
1. Roberto de Vicenzo signs an incorrect card that costs him the 1968 Masters.

 

Many of those aren't dumb.

 

Leon Lett's two bone-head plays.

The Lions hiring Matt Millen ---- that my friends could be top 5.

 

http://www.beaned.com/videoshow.php?id=998

 

Many bad hires over the years. That they kept him for seven years is what makes it so dumb

 

Merkle's Boner definitely should be top 10.

 

Dumbest chair umpire: Ted Watts

--- At a WTA tournament in Amelia Island, the service lines were placed incorrectly (the line was 18 feet from the net and should have been 21 feet). Players were double-faulting and wondering what was going on. They suspected the lines were wrong and asked Watts to check. He refused and told them to keep playing.

--- At Wimbledon, he gets the score wrong in the tie-breaker (basically taking a point away from Venus and giving it to Karolina Sprem) and allows the players to serve and receive from the wrong side for the rest of the tiebreak (won by Sprem).

The De Vicenzo gaffe is notable for two things: The marvelous L.A. Times headline --- De Vicenzo loses by stroke (of pen) --- and De Vicenzo's honest take of what happened: "What a stupid I am."

 

Funny, but incredibly dumb at the same time.

 

Jim Marshall and Wrong Way Riegels are stamping their feets and wanting your attention.

 

Anyone talking shit to Michael Jordan in his prime. [/LaBradfordSmith]

 

Players unretiring: At best, they diminish their legacy. At worst, suddenly they find themselves being investigated by the Feds.