http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Schlichter

1994 Expos

Ike Ibeabuchi

If you're throwing in guys like Charlie Ward, who took on other careers, you've got to put Kim Jong Il in there as well.

hilarious

Great answer

Level? 3 MVP's + Super Bowl + Super Bowl MVP = waste

"Good" talent = Sterling Sharpe for 2 seasons, Antonio Freeman, Robert Brooks, Javon Walker, Donald Driver, Bubba Franks. lol

+1

lol at KJI

are you from so cal or just a track guy?

in reading about obea I came across some stuff on Bryshon Nellum

His story seems like out of a movie... does anyone know what's up with him? this is so terrible i mean, would it be worse if they KNEW he was a sprinter and shot him in the legs?

edit: found this link talking about nellum's recovery

I have no idea why I'm thinking this, and I realize there's a diff between the thread topic and a straight up "bust"... (or is there!?) -- can someone explain the Gregg Jeffries trajectory to me?

I mean, I get he ended up having a fairly solid pro career - but is he also a guy who had really great physical tools but was just kind of an idiot therefore underachieved? Or just a guy who got crazy overhyped and could never be that good?

-Al

Corey Benjamin. Joey Galloway. JR Rider. Stanley Roberts.

This is a great one.

This fight broke the CompuBox record for punches thrown - in a heavyweight fight

I was surprised as well to see his name.

I was at Life U briefly when Obea showed up there to run, in my very limited contact with him he was a super nice guy, but he was 100% hurting physically, and had been overrun to the point of damage. Add that to other life obstacles, it broke his spirit to run.


As a aside Life U was a landing pad for tons of guys who at one time were destined for stardom in one sport or another. While I was there albeit briefly, there were nationally recognized athletes in every sport, that you would have thought were in big D1 programs. Many of them non-qualifiers or burnt out quickly in the D1 programs they started. Athletes were treated like kings there, the guy that ran the place collected athletes like trophies, he literally would say "I have a Division 1 program and talent, right here in my house, and we are going to go out and run over the NAIA"

plaxico

Ryan Leaf

baby jordan

Chris Washburn

Randy Ram.

He always brought his A game. He hung on too long imo.

Trying to add a few more that have not been named yet.

Golf
David Duval (either he wasn't as good as we thought, or he had one of the worst and quickest falls from the top in recent history)

Hockey
Pavel Bure - career cut short and had too quick of a decline. At his best he was awesome.
Dale McCourt - older guys will remember him


Baseball
Fred Lynn- My favourite baseball player and I thought he would be a superstar, but instead he was very good, then solid, then gone
Wally Joyner -?
Ryan Anderson
Clint Hurdle
Lamar Hoyt
Chad Curtis

same with Mantle

Save for maybe Hoyt, seems like you might have a serious thing for the clean-cut, all-american white guy ethos...

yeah, but we all have a soft spot for Mantle because alcoholism is a demon, and being lazy is just being lazy

Jennifer Cappriati

Michelle Wie might still pull it out

Anyone said Bode Miller yet? What a flake. He'd rather hit an edge really well than win the gold.

(re: Barry Sanders) Early retirement, obv. Clearly I'm interpreting the question differently than other people. He used his talent to reach the highest level, but it was a pretty huge waste to have that much talent anywhere but on the field for so many more years that he could have played. I think more talent was "wasted" in those years than most guys had to offer in their whole career.