Athlete sex scandals: Was 2009 the worst?

2009 wasn't too good for most people. The groundbreaking reality of electing a minority President began to become overshadowed by economic struggles and a failed plane bombing on Christmas Day. Not even several prominent sports celebrities could escape the unwanted press. As we have already discussed here at CCUB, many big-time athletic figures decided to adopt the coupon-book mentality that if you commit to one woman, you should get another one on the side for free. To make matters worse, Pitino and Carroll emerged from these embarrassing incidents relatively unscathed (Fortunately, I don't think that Tiger Wood's donation to Haiti, while incredibly generous, will undo the fact that he wrongly cheated on women that were not comparable to Elin in the first place)!

Some of these cheaters (Pitino) confronted any rumors of infidelity head on, leading to diminished speculation on their actions, and allowing the media to move on to more pressing issues. Others (Woods) tried to evade the accusations and had the whole situation blow up in their face. Regardless of how these athletic figures chose to approach the fact that they cheated, all of these consecutive high-profile instances of marital infidelity seemed to make 2009 an unusually big year on the cheating front. Besides these three, other alleged instances of cheating include Steve McNair and David Beckham. Has recent history provided us any comparable years of infidelity?

2003 will always be remembered by the Kobe Bryant controversy, but it wasn't the only memorable act of cheating. Who can forget football coach Mike Price, who decided to celebrate his hiring by having sex with a stripper (Alabama definitely knows how to pick 'em, because this came four years after their football coach Mike Dubose had an alleged affair with his secretary)?!

In 2004, we had big-time athletes like Alex Rodriguez getting it on with an ex-stripper, the first of many alleged affairs for Rodriguez (and as we all know, only the beginning of Rodriguez's image problems). We also had David Beckham (the guy cannot keep it in his pants) banging his nanny. And last, but certainly not least, we had Colorado Rockies pitcher Denny Neagle, who apparently decided that if you are going to cheat on your wife and ruin your career, you might as well do so in grand fashion. Not only did he receive oral sex in his car from a prostitute while drunk, but he was also ticketed for speeding. Go Denny go.

These gentlemen were all valiant in their quest to be the biggest douchebag, but the results don't lie. Tiger and 2009 take the cake for marital infidelity.

What not to do...

In case you needed more evidence that sex makes the world go round, Pete Carroll has left his dynasty at USC to move to Seattle, of all places. Rumor has it that Carroll is avoiding the SoCal drama that's about to hit the streets about banging a graduate student living in Malibu. Can someone say Rooooarrr?! Tiger can!

Lane Kiffin has been named the head coach of the USC Trojans. Personally, I think Carroll f'ed up. If you're involved in a sex scandal, coaching the Trojans is obviously the safe way to go. Seahawks, on the other hand, just seems dirty. Frankly, I think Carroll should have just bought himself a Cadillac and crashed it into a fire hydrant and a tree while his wife beat him with a golf club if he really wanted to avoid the media frenzy.