Worst contracts in sports history

[Birdman]

Anyone think of bad, long contracts in all 4 major sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL)? Either now or long ago...

Gordon Hayward (Celtics)- i know its not his fault b/c of that nasty injury but looks like he may not b the player he was at Utah and got 3 more years

Ken Griffey (Reds)- Never was player he was at Seattle and spent most of his Reds career on DL

Bobby Bonilla (Mets) Paying him till 2035

[gouki88]

Bobby Bonila's agent should be in the HoF.

Chandler Parson's is much worse than Hayward. Gordy has shown flashes of being a strong NBA wing. Parsons has shown nothing.

As I said in the other thread, that 2005 Knicks squad with Marbury, Penny Hardaway, Allan Houston and Steve Francis was funny. All horrible contracts.

Kirk Cousins is getting close to a team-ruining contract for the Vikings it seems.

No clue about NHL or MLB though

[knuckleballer]

Albert Belle comes to mind.  The Orioles gave him what at the time was the largest contract ever.  5 years $65 million.  He only played the first two years and the Orioles had to keep paying him which set them way back.

Rusney Castillo - the Sox gave him $70 million and he's toiling away in the minors.

Agree that Bonilla's agent should be in the HOF.  He set Bonilla up for life.

[celticinorlando]

Hayward’s sure is headed down that road.

[Alleyoopster]

How can we leave out Gilbert Arenas. He had two or three major knee surgeries and Washington still signed him for about $110 million. The Wizards may have topped that off by signing John Wall to a $41 million/year contract extension - $207 million total. Guess how much he's playing..He's not. Again, a couple knee surgeries prior to signing. 

[gouki88]

How can we leave out Gilbert Arenas. He had two or three major knee surgeries and Washington still signed him for about $110 million. The Wizards may have topped that off by signing John Wall to a $41 million/year contract extension - $207 million total. Guess how much he's playing..He's not. Again, a couple knee surgeries prior to signing.

Forgot about Arenas! Man he was good before the whole injury / gun thing.

Wall's one is crazy. Could be absolutely brutal

[SCeltic34]

Albert Haynesworth back in 2009 comes to mind.  7 years, $100 million with bonuses.  Signs the contract and then basically quits on his team.

[knuckleballer]

Hayward’s sure is headed down that road.

It is, but it hasn't really prevented them from signing another player at this point.  It's just money out of Wyc's pocket.  If he gets back to his old self next year, it won't be a big deal.

[jambr380]

The 5 yr/$95M contract to Pablo Sandoval from the Red Sox comes to mind as pretty horrible. I'll also throw in the 7 yr/$142M contract they gave to Carl Crawford.

Poor Hayward, but that $128M is looking pretty rough right now. Good thing we have had solid young players to fill in the voids, but Ainge has to be pretty bummed his whole plan went up in smoke over a freak injury. At least the Pacers were able to turn PG into Oladipo and Sabonis - what a steal!

How can we leave out Gilbert Arenas. He had two or three major knee surgeries and Washington still signed him for about $110 million. The Wizards may have topped that off by signing John Wall to a $41 million/year contract extension - $207 million total. Guess how much he's playing..He's not. Again, a couple knee surgeries prior to signing. 

That Wall contract destroys Hayward's, though - just brutal.

[mmmmm]

This one isn't so much on the contract, but the deal to get him:

In the 1990-91 off-season, the Baltimore Orioles traded THREE FUTURE ALL-STARS (Steve Finley, Pete Harnish & Curt Schilling) for power-hitter Glenn Davis.   They also signed him to a $3.25M contract which was a club-record amount at the time.

Davis proceeded to get a bizarre nerve injury in Spring training, played just a little bit into the season and landed on the DL.  He eventually came back to try to play a off and on over the next couple years but never really recovered. 

The impact of this set the Orioles back for ages.

[Atzar]

I wouldn't put Hayward on a list like this.  Fluke injury wasn't the FO's fault, and Hayward had never shown to be injury-prone so it's not like they had any reason to expect something like this. 

The Red Sox had multiple really bad contracts in recent years.  Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford.  I know Jacoby Ellsbury turned out to be a terrible investment for the Yankees too.  Are they among the worst in sports history?  I don't know.  I haven't done nearly enough research to answer that kind of question. 

[gouki88]

I wouldn't put Hayward on a list like this.  Fluke injury wasn't the FO's fault, and Hayward had never shown to be injury-prone so it's not like they had any reason to expect something like this. 

The Red Sox had multiple really bad contracts in recent years.  Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford.  I know Jacoby Ellsbury turned out to be a terrible investment for the Yankees too.  Are they among the worst in sports history?  I don't know.  I haven't done nearly enough research to answer that kind of question.

People love to crap on Hayward while simultaneously showcasing absolutely zero empathy

[PhoSita]

John Wall, Amare, Gilbert Arenas ...

[KGs Knee]

There have been so many bad contracts in the NBA over the years it's impossible to list them all. Most of them came in the late 90's and early 2000's, part of which is why there were successive lockouts.

Recently, however, Chandler Parsons, Joakim Noah, Timofey Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, and Luol Deng all stand out as players who pretty much contributed nothing, but all received huge paydays.

A couple of the past players I remember, whom signed terrible contracts were Eddie Curry, Rashard Lewis, Juwan Howard, Vin Baker, and Eric Dampier, to name a few

[celticsclay]

Hayward even if he is a 15 point scorer is not on the top 50 worst contracts across all sports. For Christ sake keep some perspective people. Look at someone like parsons or Noah or Sandoval who didn’t even play...