10 Biggest Sports Sex Scandals of All Time: How Does Tiger Woods Rate?

Every couple of months the media, like a blind fullback, picks-up and runs in all directions (including backwards) with a story about the latest scandal involving an athlete. Each story, with headlines blazing and little concern for nuance or probing questions, recreates the classic battle between the hometown favorite and the visiting loser so that loyal fans will know who to cheer for.

The outing of Tiger Woods for an apparent out-of-wedlock affair once again opened the floodgate of media voyeurism. Over the last few years Americans have witnessed with tawdry fascination the outing of religious leaders, politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) and other celebrities. Many of these figures, especially hypocrites like Eliot Spitzer, David Vitter, Larry Craig and Ted Haggard, deserved the public shaming that the media spotlight brought upon them. However, the hounding of Woods may finally embarrass the 24/7 media spectacle to permit public figures, including athletes, the personal space needed to work through what surely must be a difficult experience.

The need to fill hundreds of TV channels, Reality TV and the 24-hour news cycle cultivates the quest for celebrity and fuels scandal. It sucks in horsy-set hucksters like the Salahis and the pathetic Heene family and their balloon-boy. Their exposure in scandal taps the public’s perverse sense of Schadenfreude. Scandal is an all-American participation sport.

Scandals involving athletes, like other public figures, involve more than sex. From the sad tale of Michael Vick and his gang of animal lovers to the ill fated O.J. Simpson case of the 1990s, the media revels in stories of domestic violence, bribery charges, DUI arrests, fist fights and even a star accidentally shooting himself in the leg with an illegal handgun.

Sex scandals serve as a battleground over moral order. Such scandals, especially involving interracial liaisons, most captivate the media and the public. And when one adds celebrities, especially athletes and entertainers, to the mix, the public can’t turn away.

Scandal #10 – Tiger Woods and Rick Pitino

While the Woods scandal continues to play out, the Rick Pitino scandal has faded from public attention. Like Woods, Pitino, the head coach of the University of Louisville basketball team [and purported deeply religious Catholic father of five*] was outed over an extra-marital affair, this one involving the estranged wife of his longtime aide and the team’s equipment manager. Unfortunately, sex was only half of the fun the coach got for straying from his marital commitment. For starters, he impregnated his object of desire, leading to a very un-Christian abortion. The shunned woman initially wanted cars and tuition for her children, then demanded a $10 million pay-off. The messy scandal is now the subject of a federal criminal proceeding.

Scandal #9 – Kobe Bryant

In 2003, Bryant, a Los Angeles Lakers basketball player, then 24-years-old, was arrested for the allegedly sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman who worked at the Colorado hotel-spa he was staying. After two-plus years of media hype and pretrial machinations, the charges against Bryant were thrown-out because the alleged victim refused to testify.

Scandal #8 – Marv Albert

Albert is a popular sports broadcaster who had a trademark, "Yes!," to emphasize a score. In 1997, he was accused of sexual assault and became the subject of media headlines when the extent of his sexual life, including crossdressing, came out during a trial. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery for biting a former lover 18 during a rendezvous-gone-wrong. He was forced from lucrative deals with NBC and MSG Network, but was ultimately rehabilitated.