Throughout the entire history of sports, there have been scandals of varying levels sometimes simply because the athletes are in the public eye. Other times the scandals are serious and deserve to have the athletes removed from their sport. 

The most recent and most horrendous is the atrocities of Larry Nassar. He was the doctor for the USA Gymnastics Women’s National Team and practiced at Michigan State University as recently as 2020. 

According to USA Today on Dec. 21 2016, the FBI testified against Nassar in court regarding “at least 37,000 images and videos of child pornography on hard drives seized during a search of Nassar’s home.”

Nassar was charged with several life sentences because he assaulted over 250 women. More than 150 of those women appeared in court to testify against him. 

Nassar was the highest-profile case in recent years and shows the seriousness of the matter. The following cases are other high profile cases involving sexual scandals. 

Tiger Woods was in the public eye for the wrong reasons when he checked into rehab in early 2010 for sex addiction. 

Woods is a famous golfer who has broken records and famously won 11 ESPY awards, an award for the best golfer of the year.

Woods was a family man, married to Elin Nordegren. Together, they have two children.

He had around $110 million when he was 33 however, he later lost many of his endorsements from Nike, Gatorade and Gillette after it was announced that he had at least 14 mistresses. 

This scandal shook the sports world back in 2010 even people who did not watch golf were caught off guard.

The most outlandish story is that of Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson. These two MLB players decided they would swing a “Freaky Friday.” 

Kekich had a wife named Susanne Kekich, two kids and a dog. Mike had a wife named Marilyn Peterson, two kids and a dog.

After attending a barbeque together, Mike suggested something that would change their lives.

“I said to my wife, Marilyn, ‘Why don’t you ride with Mike to the diner in Fort Lee, New Jersey? And I’ll take Susanne with me and we’ll meet there and then we’ll go home from there,” Peterson said in a Palm Beach Post article.

Things escalated and eventually, Fritz married Mike’s wife and vice-versa.

“It was a life swap. We’re not saying we’re right and everyone else who thinks we’re wrong are wrong. It’s just the way we felt.” Mike said in a Bleacher Reportarticle.

Unfortunately, Mike split from Marilyn three months later. However, Fritz remained with Susanne indefinitely. 

Former NBA player James Worthy played for the Lakers from 1982-1994 and saw his career cut short because of the small interference of jail time.

Worthy had called an escort service that had been shut down. The service was being answered by undercover police officers. Thus, when Worthy F called, rather than a sex worker, the cops showed up and arrested him.

Worthy is now a basketball commentator and an analyst of the game. The arrest and jail time took him out of the game but he found a way to stay involved with basketball.

The final story is as redundant as it could possibly be. Brandon Davies was a BYU college basketball student-athlete. Davies did not commit any heinous act that would be considered taboo. 

Davies was suspended from school because he had sex with his girlfriend. This act broke the school honor code which is signed by every student entering the school. BYU is a Mormon college that practices abstinence.

This threw off the entire season for BYU.

“Playing the next night without Davies, BYU – which was having a 27-2 season and had a good chance to be one of the four, regional No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament – lost to New Mexico 82-64.” wrote Brad Knickerbocker.

The severity of sex scandals varies greatly however they always affect the athletes and their sports.