Chris Chelios is the one that instantly comes to mind. Once he got bounced from the Red Wings, I was (edit: HOPING) he was finally going to retire. The simulator on my NHL seasons on the xbox had him retiring each and every year since '03! The last few were a far cry from his Chicago days, and IMO really pathetic to watch.
What other athletes are guilty of letting their star fade to milk out a few more seasons? Brett Favre, maybe? Does anyone have trepidation about Omar Vizquel’s legacy, or Jamie Moyer? Maybe Andre Agassi, and the cortisone shots in the back in between sets?
I have no problems with athletes trying to play as long as possible. Whether it’s for the money, fame or love of the game, who am I to say how long too long is?
Steve Carlton would fit into this category. His legacy was never really tarnished, but he bounced around between five teams over the last two plus years of his career (and spent about another year trying to convince the rest he could still pitch) not wanting to accept that he was finished. Carlton had an agent who basically screwed him out of millions over the majority of his career, but he always denied that was why he kept trying to hang on.
I generally don’t have any issue with a player trying to play as long as they can, provided they’re not going out there and embarrassing themselves.
I agree. It’s much worse with boxers too because the physical and mental affects of the sport are often so obvious. Another example is Evander Holyfield, who just unretired. He is 50 years old.
I wonder if the OP was inspired by thinking of A-Rod. Has he hung on too long? He’;s certainly not the player he once was (whether he ever was without doping is another question), and I’m sure some would say he’s hung on too long, but he is still probably a better than average 3B-man. So does hanging on too long mean tarnishing your image or does it mean playing after there are better replacements?
John A. Kelley The Elder won the Boston Marathon in 1935, 1945, finished 2nd seven times. Olympian in 1936, 48.
Ran his last Boston in 1992 at the age of 84.
If the athlete wants to play, why not keep playing? It is the team’s responsibility to tell the player that he he’s not good enough to play for the team anymore, not the player’s responsibility to retire/or quit.
In answer to the OP, no athlete ever let his career drag out too long, although certainly there have been many teams that have milked their players out of every last once of their talent.
When I think of athletes who were allowed to play too long, I think of the NY Mets playing Willie Mays in CF during the 1973 World Series. It was terrible to watch Willie stumble around the outfield, and to drive in his only run with a seeing eye 12-bounce grounder through the middle.
We were cracking Chris Chelios jokes at one of the (now very bored) NHL forums I frequent. I then went on to mention what a cortisone junky Agassi was at the end of his tennis career, and just watching these slow, sad, broken athletes make their aura of being unbeatable fade. I was sure there were more I hadn’t even considered myself.
Brett Favre doesn’t really belong on the list. His I’m-retired-now-I’m-not act was certainly pretty irritating. But as far as his performance on the field, he continued to be a darn good quarterback almost until the bitter end. His next-to-last season was among his finest by almost any metric – passing yards, wins, touchdowns, lack of interceptions, completion percentage, a QB rating that was several points higher than any of his other seasons.
