Superstar athletes whose careers ended with a whimper

Mays is almost always included on any list of the top five baseball players of all time, and rightly so. His all-around skills made him arguably the first true five-tool player. However, those skills had mostly eroded by the time he joined the New York Mets after a midseason trade in 1972. Mays acquitted himself well enough in his partial season in Queens, posting an .848 OPS in 69 games, but he hung on one season too long. His 1973 season was a disaster, as he was clearly a shell of his former self. Mays barely hit .200, his OPS didn't crack even a paltry .650 and his overall level of play was so poor that he has since been used as the poster child for what greatness looks like after it breaks down.

That picture just looks wrong, doesn't it? You'll probably end up thinking that often over the next few minutes, truth be told. The late Pittsburgh great should never have worn anything but the black and gold of the Steelers, and from a production standpoint it's almost like he didn't. After a salary dispute with the Rooney family caused a split with the Steelers, Harris suited up in eight games for the Seahawks in 1984, but he had nothing left after posting 1,007 yards the previous season. Harris notched only 170 yards on the ground, averaged just 2.5 yards per carry and was nothing like the graceful yet bruising back who was one of the best in the NFL during the 1970s.

"The Dream" had played his entire career with the Houston Rockets, winning two NBA titles, the 1993-94 MVP Award, two NBA Finals MVP Awards and several other accolades. Then he was traded by the Rockets to the Raptors for two draft picks. I won't even bother naming the two picks, as it would just make things worse. In any event, Olajuwon's time in Toronto was unbecoming of the man who was more graceful and cerebral than any other pivot of his era. He posted career-low averages in virtually every significant statistical category, failed to average double digits for the only time in his career and was nothing like the player who terrorized the NBA's Western Conference for 17 years.

Unitas spent 17 mostly excellent years with the Baltimore Colts, piling up a plethora of records during his career. Toward the end of his time in Baltimore, his play started to slip considerably, but that wouldn't have been an issue had that been the end of it. It wasn't, as the Colts traded Unitas to the Chargers, and he floundered in four starts with San Diego, going 1-3 and looking nothing like the player who had once posted a 47-game consecutive touchdown streak. Unitas stuck around as San Diego's backup but retired before the beginning of the 1974 season.

There are those who make the case that Namath is one of the most overrated players in NFL history, and some of the stats would bear that out to be true. Namath threw 220 interceptions against only 173 touchdowns, but despite that he authored the sport's most iconic upset with his Super Bowl III win over the Colts. And he's in the Hall of Fame, whether his detractors like it or not. Namath's one season in Los Angeles started well, as he went 2-1 in the Rams' first three games of the 1977 campaign, but his performance in the fourth game, a prime-time affair against the Chicago Bears, went so poorly that he was benched afterward and never played another down of football.

Tomlinson was nothing short of spectacular in nine years with San Diego, piling up records and yardage at a historic pace. The case can easily be made that he was the best all-around running back in the NFL through his first eight years in the league. Tomlinson hit free agency and eventually signed with the Jets, as some bad blood between him and Chargers general manager A.J. Smith made coming to an agreement in San Diego impossible. Tomlinson's time in New York wasn't too bad, at first, and the overall numbers from his stretch there aren't terrible. However he, like many others on this list, was so iconic for his primary franchise that anything he did after leaving seems like a bad impersonation.

Jagr is a tough inclusion here, as his quest to play hockey, well, forever was one of the NHL's most enjoyable subplots for many years. However, by the time he ended up in Calgary for the 2017-18 season, it was clear that the ageless wonder was out of gas. Jagr managed only seven points in 22 games, and despite the fact that he didn't necessarily look out of place on the ice, the league doesn't have much patience for guys in their mid-40s, unless they're producing points. For the first time in his career, Jagr wasn't, and he was subsequently waived. He still plays overseas, but his time in the NHL ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

O'Neal burst onto the scene with the Magic, went to Los Angeles and became a champion and a league legend, was still productive with Miami, then turned somewhat gracefully into a role player. However, that graceful aging process hit the skids in Boston. Shaq averaged just over nine points per game in a reduced role, and by and large he was far from the physical force of nature who dominated the league for close to a decade and a half. Had he hung up his sneakers after his only full season in Phoenix, he would have avoided mention here. Unfortunately he, like so many greats, just couldn't walk away from the game before making sure he had wrung every last ounce of production out of his body.

Webster's tragic post-football life was chronicled briefly in the movie, "Concussion." One wonders how much extra damage he did to himself by hanging on for two extra seasons with the Chiefs in 1989 and 1990. The Hall of Fame center, one of the main pieces of the Steelers 1970s dynasty, and one of the few who remained effective well into the 1980s, was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1997, but by then his life was already starting to deteriorate. Webster's level of play was greatly diminished during his time with the Chiefs, and like so many other greats, it's hard to fathom that he played for more than one team in his career.

Doesn't that picture look ridiculous? My apologies to the 20 Atlanta Thrashers fans in existence, but Chelios, a war horse on the blue line if there ever was one, should never have suited up for Atlanta. Chelios spent almost the entirety of his career with Montreal, Chicago and Detroit — three of the Original Six and venerable franchises, all of them. Then there were the seven games he played with Atlanta at age 48. If it was a publicity stunt, it was a bad one and a blight on an otherwise sterling career. Chelios, for the record, didn't register a point in those seven games and to be fair, didn't have a point in 28 games with Detroit the prior season. That probably should have been a sign that it was time to hang up the skates.

Kobe played his entire career in Tinseltown, so unlike some on this list, he didn't have to suffer the indignity of suiting up with another team. One imagines Bryant balking at the idea and retiring, were it ever seriously presented to him. On the other hand, the notoriously competitive guard may have kept at it even in the NBA's hinterlands. Surely, a one-year stay in, say, Sacramento couldn't have been much worse for his legacy than what actually happened. Bryant had already passed Michael Jordan on the career scoring list the prior season, but he stuck around one more year as part of a terrible Lakers team and chucked to his heart's content. Bryant shot 36 percent from the field, well below his career 44.7 percentage, and stunted the development of the young Lakers. His final game was fitting: a 60-point performance but one that took him 50 field-goal attempts to achieve. This final season has been forgotten on account of Bryant's tragic, untimely death, but final game aside, it was not a glory-filled final season.

Jeter was one of the most prolific offensive shortstops in baseball history, and his 3,465 hits rank sixth all time. Still, he probably could have done without the final season of his career, as it got sort of awkward watching a farewell tour that included gifts and displays of appreciation in most road cities as well as Jeter posting a .617 OPS, a full 200 points below his career average. Had the Yankees great ceased playing after his strong 2012 campaign, one that saw him lead the league in hits and bat .316, he would not be as high on the all-time hit list, but he would not have suffered the indignity of pretty clearly being unable to play the game at anywhere near the level he or his fans were accustomed to.

Truth be told, the fact that Jordan was still able to put up two seasons of at least 20 points per game while approaching 40 is pretty impressive. His final years were better than Kobe's swan song season. His Airness' inclusion on this list, however, is more about the fact that some guys should play for one team and go out on top if they have the chance. Jordan's game-winning shot over Bryon Russell should have been an iconic moment to send the original GOAT into permanent retirement. Instead, he scratched the itch after three seasons away, and while there were some memorable performances, it feels like he should have left at the absolute top of the mountain. 

Carter seemed to genuinely enjoy playing the role of elder statesman, but for those who saw him explode on the scene as the aerial heir apparent to Jordan, his late-career reinvention as a mostly ground-based, savvy veteran bench piece was jarring, to say the least. Carter didn't average more than eight points per game after the 2013-14 season, and while perhaps his story would be compelling if it had played out on a big stage, for a prestige team, he was toiling in anonymity for the putrid, rebuilding Hawks. Perhaps he just wanted to hit the 25,000-point mark, and that was his only reason for staying around. He got there, fittingly enough, on a dunk. Carter decided to give things a go one more time in the 2019-20 season, but ultimately did not get a formal sendoff, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a halting end to a 22-year career.

Football is the most unforgiving of the four major sports when it comes to the "here today, gone tomorrow" dynamic, and Favre is a case study. He had, by many measures, his best season at age 40 with Minnesota, taking the Vikings to the precipice of the Super Bowl while throwing 33 touchdowns against only seven interceptions. It made sense, then, that he would come back for the next season. That proved to be an unwise decision, as he was a shell of himself, tossing 11 touchdowns and 19 interceptions and going 5-8 as the starter. Favre followed arguably his best season with what was definitively his worst, and instead of leaving the sport after valiantly proving that he did indeed have something left in the tank, he hung on too long. Oh, and he flirted with coming back for a year or two after his true retirement. Not great.

Smith would have been the league's all-time leading rusher had he never played a down with the Cardinals, but he went to Arizona feeling like he had something to prove. Specifically, Smith said at the time that he felt he was a 1,300-yard back. Injuries plagued his first year in the desert, as he only posted 256 yards on the ground. Things were better in his final year, as he ran for 937 yards as Arizona's feature back. Even that came with a caveat. Smith was a player who routinely averaged around 4.5 yards per carry— or more — with Dallas. With the Cardinals, his two-year average was 3.3 yards per carry, hardly the stuff of legends. Yes, he piled up a few more records while donning the red and white, but it's hard to argue that he actually helped his legacy in the process.

Superstars stick around because it's tough to walk away from a sport until that sport proves to you, often harshly, that you can't do things like you used to. Guys who are the next tier down, borderline Hall of Famers like Hines Ward? Sometimes they stick around to hit a round number. In Ward's case, his overall career stats might say "1,000 receptions," but he would have been better off retiring after a 2010 season that saw him more or less resemble the receiver he had been his entire career. Instead, he chased 1,000 in 2011 and was a shell of himself, catching 46 passes for a paltry 381 yards and a mere 8.3 yards per reception, almost four yards less than his career average. His 1,000th catch was almost farcical, as it went for a loss of 3 yards. Ward got his number, but any Steelers fan will tell you that his final season was not one for the books.

So many boxers hang on past their time that the concept itself is cliche. Still, Jones is regarded by many experts as one of the greatest fighters of all time and possibly the most physically gifted. Well, he was regarded as one of the greatest unless you count his post-Antonio Tarver career. After Tarver knocked him out in a rematch of their first fight, won controversially by Jones, the former great went on to lose by knockout to Glen Johnson, then again by decision to Tarver. In 2008, he was routed by Joe Calzaghe, and in 2010 Bernard Hopkins avenged a loss to Jones from almost 17 years prior. Incredibly, Jones has gone on to fight 15 more times since the Hopkins fight, often in strange locations, for obscure belts, against no-name opponents. He's now 55 years old and in April of 2023 fought a 4-round bout - he lost a majority decision, in case you were curious - to mixed martial artist Anthony Pettis, who was making his boxing debut.

A confession: When I was considering athletes who hung on too long, Ewing's name didn't immediately pop into my head. Then I did a double take and said to myself, "Did he REALLY play for the Orlando Magic for a season?" Yes, yes he did. After a blockbuster trade sent him from the Knicks to Seattle, Ewing signed with Orlando as a free agent and had one eminently forgettable season with the Magic. The man who averaged nearly 23 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as the face of the Knicks for 15 seasons could muster only six points and four rebounds per game in his short time in Central Florida. His time with the Magic did, however, launch him into a nice second career as a coach, though things did end badly at Georgetown.

The first overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft by Orlando, Webber was promptly traded to the Warriors, where he played one season before being traded to Washington. It was in Sacramento where Webber did his best work, and he even put up a 20 and 10 season for the 76ers in 2005-06. The wheels came off quickly after that, though, and Webber saw his production dive precipitously in 2006-07, a year when he spent time with both the Sixers and Pistons. Webber ended up hanging on for one more year — or at least a small part of it. He re-signed with the Warriors but appeared in only nine games, averaging a paltry 3.9 points per game before calling it quits. It was probably not the ending one of the best passing big men of all time deserved.

Henderson was no doubt chasing 3,000 hits. That's why he stayed around the sport for so long. However, he had already reached the milestone, and nudged himself slightly past, when he decided to sign with the Dodgers in 2003 at the age of 44. Henderson, renowned for his ability to get on base, posted a pedestrian .321 on-base percentage in a brief 30-game stint with L.A. Even after that was done, even after he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he still hadn't officially retired from the sport, and as late as 2011 he spoke of his desire to get back out on the diamond. At a spry 65 years old, it's probably safe to say that Henderson is done. Probably.

Brodeur is the NHL's all-time winningest goalie, its all-time leader in games played by a goalie, a wizard at playing the puck and possibly the reason that the trapezoid was brought into the game — and he owns a host of other records. He also played his entire career with the New Jersey Devils, save for a ridiculous seven-game run with the St. Louis Blues in 2014-15, after New Jersey declined to bring him back for a 22nd season. As much as any other athlete mentioned here, Brodeur's career seems diminished by the fact that he donned another team's sweater besides that of the Devils. It just seems wrong. 

Did you forget that Sanders spent two eminently forgettable seasons with the Ravens? Me too. Sanders should have been done after the 1999 season, his last with Dallas. He instead chose to chase some Daniel Snyder money in Washington for a year, then retired for three years, only to come back out of retirement to suit up for the Ravens. Sanders managed five picks in those two seasons and even had a pick-six, but it was clear to anyone watching that he was a shell of the man who was arguably the best pure cover corner in league history. When you think of Sanders, you think of the guy wearing 21 for Atlanta, Dallas and one memorable year in San Francisco. You don't think of number 37 for the Baltimore Ravens.

Perhaps no athlete before or since paid a greater price for hanging on too long than Ali. "The Greatest" kept fighting well past his prime, his physical appearance less than imposing, his legendary quickness and reflexes mostly gone, and his chin the only thing left. Ali's last two fights, against Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick, were both losses, and in the Holmes fight it was painfully obvious that Ali's opponent was doing his best not to do any lasting damage to him. It's hard to know precisely when Ali should have retired for good, but had he done so after beating Earnie Shavers in September 1977, a full four years before the Berbick fight, he might have been able to save himself the punishment that no doubt contributed to his swift physical decline.