11 Game-Changing Drug Charges In Sports

Just say no.

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Game Changer - For the past few days, Peyton Manning has been fighting allegations that he used HGH, after it was reportedly shipped to his wife under her name recently. The Hall of Fame-bound Denver Broncos quarterback is just one of many athletes to be hit with drug charges — whether they're found to be true or false. BET.com used the occasion to pinpoint some of the more infamous drug charges levied against athletes across many sports. (Photo: Leon Halip/Getty Images)

Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden - Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden won two World Series championships together as teammates on the 1986 New York Mets and the 1996 New York Yankees. But as great as their talents were, their repeated demons with drugs were well documented. Both had reported incidents that nearly spun their respective career and life off track, before being able to adjust and stay clean. (Photo: Monika Graff/UPI Photo/Landov)

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Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden - Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden won two World Series championships together as teammates on the 1986 New York Mets and the 1996 New York Yankees. But as great as their talents were, their repeated demons with drugs were well documented. Both had reported incidents that nearly spun their respective career and life off track, before being able to adjust and stay clean. (Photo: Monika Graff/UPI Photo/Landov)

Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden - Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden won two World Series championships together as teammates on the 1986 New York Mets and the 1996 New York Yankees. But as great as their talents were, their repeated demons with drugs were well documented. Both had reported incidents that nearly spun their respective career and life off track, before being able to adjust and stay clean. (Photo: Monika Graff/UPI Photo/Landov)

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Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden - Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden won two World Series championships together as teammates on the 1986 New York Mets and the 1996 New York Yankees. But as great as their talents were, their repeated demons with drugs were well documented. Both had reported incidents that nearly spun their respective career and life off track, before being able to adjust and stay clean. (Photo: Monika Graff/UPI Photo/Landov)

Len Bias - Tabbed as the second overall selection in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, Len Bias had the world in his hands with a bright future at his feet. But just two days after the June 1986 Draft, Bias overdosed on cocaine and died, becoming the poster child for drugs ruining promising lives. He was only 22. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)

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Len Bias - Tabbed as the second overall selection in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, Len Bias had the world in his hands with a bright future at his feet. But just two days after the June 1986 Draft, Bias overdosed on cocaine and died, becoming the poster child for drugs ruining promising lives. He was only 22. (Photo: Bettmann/Corbis)

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Tiger Woods - In June 2014, Tiger Woods was widely reported to have spent $200,000 on an HGH-supplying doctor. The golfer's agent and even Nike denied the charges, but that didn't stop writers and reporters from penning subsequent columns wondering if Tiger was ever on the prowl for the performance-enhancing drugs. (Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

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Alex Rodriguez - A-Rod admitted using steroids from 2001-03, when his home run numbers blew up. But he didn't learn his lesson, having cheated the system again, this time infamously becoming involved with performance-enhancing drugs as part of the 2013 Biogenesis scandal. As a fallout from that latter involvement, the slugger was suspended for the entire 2014 season by Major League Baseball. Come on, man... Why you always lying? (Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)

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Lance Armstrong - Liar, liar. After years of denying ever using performance-enhancing drugs, it took a January 2013 sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey for Lance Armstrong to finally come clean about his lengthy PED use. Epic downfall. (Photo: Gail Oskin/Getty Images)

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Barry Bonds - Major League Baseball's all-time home run king was indicted in 2007 for allegedly lying about his involvement with a steroids and performance-enhancing drugs ring, but perjury charges against him were dropped — as was an obstruction of justice charge earlier this year. So, you be the judge. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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Jose Canseco - Not only did Jose Canseco admit using performance-enhancing drugs in his 2005 tell-all book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, but he also blew the whistle on some of baseball's biggest names and their reported abuse as well. The book helped change the landscape for how Major League Baseball has dealt with such drug offenders since. (Photo: Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

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Marion Jones - Remember how much drug use cost Marion Jones? The world-class track-and-field athlete had to relinquish her three gold and two bronze medals for lying about taking steroids prior to the 2000 Olympics. Talk about a fall from grace. (Photo: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

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Evander Holyfield - The former four-time world heavyweight boxing champion was accused of both HGH and steroid use in 2007, but his legacy on the sport simply outweighed those reports. Maybe because he was 45 at the time and trying to make a comeback to the Sweet Science, and no one wanted to see it anyway. (Photo: Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty Images)

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Shane Mosley - Shane Mosley used every excuse in the book to evade his drug charges. Accused of using undetectable steroids dubbed "the clear" and "the cream" before his 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya, Mosley countered with the excuse that he thought he was merely taking vitamins and using flaxseed oil. Sugar did file a defamation lawsuit against BALCO founder Victor Conte in 2008, but that complaint was dismissed. (Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa  - As much as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were heralded for their home run-hitting barrage in 1998, they were implicated for alleged steroid and performance-enhancing drug use, respectively, and even had to sit in the hot seat for a 2005 hearing before Congress. To date, each home run slugger has yet to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame... and may never be for the stigma they carry with their alleged drug use.  (Photo: Bill Greenblatt/UPI/Landov)

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Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa  - As much as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were heralded for their home run-hitting barrage in 1998, they were implicated for alleged steroid and performance-enhancing drug use, respectively, and even had to sit in the hot seat for a 2005 hearing before Congress. To date, each home run slugger has yet to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame... and may never be for the stigma they carry with their alleged drug use.  (Photo: Bill Greenblatt/UPI/Landov)