Top 3 Misguided Comebacks in Sports History

Lance Armstrong announced on September 9, 2008 that he would return to competitive cycling in an effort to win the 2009 Tour de France. Since then, Lance experienced a series of mishaps including placing 29th in the Tour Down Under in Australia and breaking a collarbone which forced him to withdraw from the Vuelta Castilla Y Leon in Spain. To top it all off, his favorite bike was stolen in Sacramento. Anyone can agree that this is certainly not how he envisioned his supposed grand comeback. Sadly, Lance Armstrong is not the only one to jeopardize his legacy by attempting another shot at glory only to be embarrassingly worse off. Here are the top three misguided and slightly mortifying comebacks in sports history.

Michael Jordan

Air Jordan’s first comeback was hugely successful, earning him three more championship rings with the Chicago Bulls. Also, everyone saw the out-of-this-world brilliance he displayed against Byron Russell in the final seconds in Game 6 of the NBA finals against Utah Jazz. That was indeed the perfect and almost godly way to voluntarily end his career, but then he decided to make a second comeback in 2001 with the Washington Wizards. Throughout the two seasons he played with the club, it was painful to watch Jordan glued to the court, unable to fly like he used to. Don’t be mistaken, he still managed to pull a few surprises like scoring 43 points in an NBA game and making the All-Star cut at age 40. But seeing him being outrun, pushed over, and getting blocked by younger but lesser known players made many fans cringe and feel embarrassed for the living legend. To make matters worse, the Washington Wizards officially booted Michael out of the squad in 2003.

Brett Favre

During his prime, Brett Favre was probably the most feared and respected quarterbacks in the NFL. Known as the toughest and greatest gunslinger the Green Bay Packers has ever seen, Favre has three AP MVP awards, one Superbowl ring, and plenty of other championships and awards under his belt. To any professional athlete, this is more than enough legacy to leave behind for the history books. Yet he chose to come out of retirement in 2008 to join the New York Jets. His decision, which garnered much controversy, failed to have the impact everyone was hoping for. The New York Jets lost all of its last five games and missed the playoffs. To add insult to injury, Chad Pennington, the gunslinger that Brett replaced, went on to lead the Miami Dolphins to perhaps the greatest turnaround in NFL history.

Muhammad Ali

He may be the “greatest of all time”, but he chose to add embarrassing moments in his biography rather than go down in history with a luminous conclusion to his career. The boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay decided to make a comeback in 1980 only to lose two consecutive fights against Larry Holmes and a then-unknown boxer named Trevor Berbick. Although the defeats did little to wreck his remarkable legacy, it was still a difficult sight for the fans to see a bloated 40-year-old Muhammad Ali getting beat up by far lesser foes. GP

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