2016 Turkeys of the Year

Turkeys aren’t known for their grace or intelligence, and the world of sports had its share of such ungainly birds in 2016.

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Nov 22, 2016

2016 Turkeys of the Year

Ryan Lochte

We’ll probably never know the truth about exactly what happened in the wee hours of that fateful Rio morning. The only thing we know for certain is that Lochte came out looking like even more of a doofus than he usually does.

D’Angelo Russell

He secretly recorded Nick Young admitting to cheating on Iggy Azalea and then they broke up. Not a good look.

Art Briles

Every detail that comes out about Briles’s handling of Baylor’s sexual assault scandal is more horrifying than the last.

Hope Solo

After calling Sweden “a bunch of cowards,” Solo was handed a six-month suspension by U.S. Soccer that appears to have ended her international career.

Draymond Green

He had more postseason groin shots than the Warriors had regular season losses.

Chris Sale

Sale going all Edward Scissorhands on the White Sox’ jerseys was the funniest thing to happen in baseball this year.

Russia track and field

Man, how badly do you have to cheat to get your whole country banned from the Olympics.

Yordano Ventura

Yordano Ventura’s decision to repeatedly throw at Manny Machado was so ill-advised his teammates didn’t really bother to come to his aid.

Jurgen Klinsmann

Jurgen Klinsmann was supposed to take U.S. Soccer to the next level, and while he did oversee some successful times in his five years in charge, his tenure ended with a thud. Consecutive losses to Mexico (2-1) and Costa Rica (4-0) in November marked the first time the USA started the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Hexagonal 0-2-0 and spelled the end for Klinsmann, who was fired and replaced by former U.S. manager Bruce Arena.

Jon Jones

2016 wasn’t as a bad as 2015 for Jones, but it was still no walk in the park. His much anticipated July rematch with Daniel Cormier was called off after Jones tested positive for a banned substance. He was slapped with a year-long doping suspension in November.

Roger Goodell

He deserves a spot on this list year after year.

Rutgers football

What was the worst game of the year for Rutgers? The 58–0 pasting by Ohio State on Oct. 1 or the 78–0 drubbing at the hands of Michigan a week later?

Maria Sharapova

The bad news: Maria Sharapova got suspended two years for taking a banned drug only used in Russia and former Soviet republics. The good news: The ban was knocked down to 15 months on appeal.

Tom Brady

It took a while, but 2016 was when Brady finally had to pay his penance for Deflategate. It wasn’t even that much of a punishment, though, since the Patriots did just fine without him.

Rougned Odor

Richard W. Rodriguez/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS via Getty Images

Rougned Odor whallopping Jose Bautista in the face was wrong, but at least we got a great photo out of it.

Nick Saban

The weird thing about Nick Saban saying he had no idea when Election Day was is that you know he’s telling the truth.

Josh Naylor

Chris Williams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The then-Marlins prospect cut his teammate on the hand in some sort of “knife prank,” leading to a wound that required three stitches. He was traded to the San Diego Padres at the deadline.

Curt Schilling

Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

He was right about Donald Trump winning the election. He was wrong about everything else, from whether it’s acceptable to call children attractive, to his prospects in a 2018 Senate run.

Russell Wilson

On two occasions—TWO—Wilson used platitudes lifted from a google search of “how to describe a beautiful woman” in social media posts about Ciara. They were married over the summer. Congrats to them.