The most unstable athletes of all time

Alonzo Spellman?

 

1970 batting champion Alex Johnson

 

Elijah Dukes.

 

Lawrence Phillips is another one. Had major psychological problems.

I would say Cecil Collins, but I think he was just a criminal.

 

I think there's a distinction between bad people and unstable people that maybe I didn't make very well. John Rocker was an outspoken racist hick, but I don't think his behavior could be described as unpredictable. That's what makes Ron Artest so fascinating.

 

The best funny/sad Artest story is about him applying for a job at Circuit City during the NBA lockout so that he could get the employee's discount on recording equipment for his music label.

 

I think he's just a bully.

 

The definition is interesting. What about athletes who committed suicide?

There are some obscure ones, too, like Justin Strzelczyk.

 

Dimitrius Underwood

 

Agreed. The thing that is so crazy about him is that before the draft you just kept hearing about what a class act he was and how he was such a good person and blah, blah, blah... I don't remember hearing anything about him being a bad guy until really his second season... Part of me wonders if he's on something.

 

No love for Vernon Maxwell?

 

I had a writer friend who told me a Belle story where he took a reporter's notebook, threw it in the toilet. The reporter went to get it and Belle had taken a shit on it.