Athletes Behaving Badly
A look at professional sports stars who have served time.
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Its All Good Until They Are Behind Bars - Despite swimming in money and celebrity status, when athletes break the law, they have to pay. Former Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd is the latest athlete to be sentenced for breaking the law. BET.com takes a look at athletes who did the crime and had to do the time. — Dominique Zonyéé(Photo: Ethan Miller/AP Photo, Pool)
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Sam Hurd - What’s a $5 million NFL contract and a starting spot on the Chicago Bears worth? Clearly not enough for Sam Hurd. The former Bears wide receiver was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Nov. 13 for his role in starting a drug-distribution scheme. He was originally arrested in 2011 in Chicago after he tried to purchase a kilo of cocaine in a police-operated sting.(Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for GREY GOOSE)
Photo By Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for GREY GOOSE
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Mike Tyson - Boxing elite Mike Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America Pageant contestant in Tyson's Indianapolis hotel suite in July 1991. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1992. (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Marion Jones - When the feds opened an investigation in 2004 into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the infamous performance enhancer nesting ground, Marion Jones denied taking steroids during and before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. However, after a sample of her urine tested positive, she came clean in October 2007, admitting she had lied to federal prosecutors. She was stripped of all her Olympic medals and sentenced to six months in prison.(Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
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Darryl Strawberry - Darryl Strawberry made his mark on the New York Mets in 1983, but a hardcore addiction to cocaine and alcohol led Strawberry to be suspended three times. He spent 11 months in prison from 2002-2003 for violating drug policies at a court mandated rehab facility in Tampa. Strawberry’s legal woes and battle with addiction led him to file for bankruptcy in 2012.(Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
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Rae Carruth - Rae Carruth was in his prime as a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers, from 1997-1999, until he was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend Cherica Adams. Adams, who was eight months pregnant, was murdered in a drive-by shooting, which Carruth orchestrated. The child survived and Carruth went on the run. He turned himself in and was eventually sentenced to 18-24 years in prison.(Photo: ME Reuters Photographers/Reuters)
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Tommy Kane - Former NFL star Tommy Kane was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2004 for manslaughter in connection to the stabbing death of his wife, Tammara Shaikh. Kane and his wife had recently split up; however she was meeting him to take him to drug treatment when the altercation occured. Kane left his four children without a mother or father.(Photo: Markus Boesch/Getty Images)
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O.J. Simpson - O.J. Simpson had already been found not guilty of murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, but perhaps that only fueled his invincible nature. The former NFL player was sentenced to nine years in prison for trying to steal his own memorabilia.(Photo: Isaac Brekken, Pool, File)
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Jayson Williams - Retired Nets star Jayson Williams did two stints in jail. First he served 18 months in connection with his limo driver’s shooting death, only to return to prison to serve eight months for drinking and driving in New York. He was released from Rikers in 2012. Hopefully that was his last time behind bars.(Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
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Nate Newton - Nate Newton, a former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman, was popped for trying to run a drug ring. He was busted in Louisiana in 2001 with 213 pounds of marijuana in his car. Then, just six months later, while out on bond, he was arrested again and accused of hauling 175 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of a car. Newton served 2.5 years in prison(Photo: Robert Laberge /Allsport/Getty Images)
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Plaxico Burress - Most people go to jail for shooting another person, however Plaxico Burress went to prison in 2009 for accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a New York City night club. The NFL star was dropped from the New York Giants, but after serving 20 months in prison, he made his way back to the NFL and now plays for the Jets.(Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)