Athletes Who Treat Their Fans Like Trash

Is the life of professional athletes not glorious? According to U.S. News, one of the highest paying professions, a surgeon, makes about $208,000 per year. Compare that to Irish UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who topped Forbes' 2021 list of highest-paid athletes with a total earning of $180 million, and what do you get? But beyond the money, pro athletes are often privileged to notoriety, fame, and adulation. When you look up "dream jobs" in the dictionary, "pro-athlete" should absolutely be at the top of the list. So why is it that athletes, retired and active, have a nasty track record of being unappreciative to their fans?

For the record straight, It's the fans — not owners or commissioners — who run the money show in sports. From merchandise to ticket sales, its fandom and loyalty of the consumers that drives the industry. Just peep what happened in 2020 when the pandemic hit, forcing a U.S. lockdown that had fans at home: according to Forbes, the estimated revenue loss of the four major American professional sports leagues and the NCAA's March Madness was north of $14 billion. Sports teams' value estimates dipped too. Forbes estimated that NHL franchises values fell 2% on average, and NBA values rose only 4% — its smallest on average increase since 2010.

So, who are these culprits, and what is their deal? We're happy to spill: here are 13 athletes who treat fans poorly.

Cam Newton, at one point, was one of the brightest NFL stars to grace the gridiron. We're talking about an athlete who went from playing junior college at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas and backing up Tim Tebow at the University of Florida to winning a Heisman and a national championship at the University of Auburn and taking the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. Given his down-to-earth underdog story, one would think Newton would be relatable to the average citizen. Well, whoever did think of such, thought so incorrectly.

It appears "Superman," as he's been affectionately nicknamed, truly doesn't believe he's from this earth, as there have been several instances the NFL career leader in quarterback rushing touchdowns has treated his supporters unfairly, from allegedly charging fans to sign photographs to getting into altercations with fans of opposing teams.

The photo incident, per ProFootballTalk, happened at a North Carolina mall where fans were charged $125 for a signed photograph, $150 for a football, and $175 for a jersey. Oh, and if you wanted a personal message, that was another $50. Mind you; this is a man with a net worth of $75 million. But wait, there's more: Flag & Cross reports that the former New England Patriot acted as if he was going to sign a young fan's item before faking them out and throwing it in the garbage can. Pure savagery.

Although research has shown different, people seem to still believe Canadians to be the nicest human beings on earth. Well, if more people knew about Former NHL star Rob Ray, that perception could possibly change rather quickly.

For starters, the Stirling, Ontario native used to get it in on the ice. Before entering the NHL, Ray racked up 700 penalty minutes in 125 games playing two full seasons with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (AHL), according to Celebrity Hockey Classics. Then, once making his ​​NHL debut with the Sabres, his enforcer style continued, amassing a career of 2,687 penalty minutes — the most in NHL history for a player with one team. Overall, Ray would end his NHL career with 3,207 career penalty minutes, a feat marking him 6th overall in NHL history. Look, there's even a rule named after this man because he was beating players so badly.

If you're unfamiliar, and to get a sense of how ... not nice Ray was as a player, penalties in hockey could include anything from tripping, slashing, roughing, holding and high sticking, to fighting and making the other player bleed. Well, Ray took his enforcer role seriously (even with fans), as he once viciously beat a guy who approached him from the stands, while acting strangely. While reports say the fan's actions were due to a wager, Ray obviously didn't find it funny, hitting the fan a reported 17 to 18 times before the cops finally got there.

Is there a clearer message to a fanbase that they're unappreciated — or hated, even — than an athlete's non-remorseful admission to cheating the sport they all are supposed to collectively love? Despite the pay and privilege disparity, doesn't it all come down to the love of the game at the end of the day? Or is that just a cheesy ​American sports drama? While, yes, Hollywood is mostly make-believe, wasn't the overall consensus not that Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston were portraying something real about sports culture? If so, it's certainly not the case for Lance Armstrong.

Forget the fact that Armstrong won seven straight Tour De France championships from 1999 through 2005 (the record is five); more importantly, the American cyclist had become a hero, as fans rallied around his story of beating an advanced testicular cancer. He even sold 100 million "LiveStrong" bracelets in eight years. 

And it's that kind of support that makes Armstrong's lack of remorse about using steroids that more shocking. In a sit-down with Oprah, he was anything but apologetic, saying, "Everybody that gets caught is bummed out they got caught" (via HuffPost). When asked how he handled a teammate's wife's doping accusations (Armstrong had called her a "fat, crazy b***h"), his response was: "I called you crazy. I called you a b**h. I called you all these things, but I never called you fat" (via ESPN). What a stand-up guy. 

Floyd Mayweather is one of the highest-paid athletes of all time, having won over $1 billion in prize money over his career. "Money" Mayweather, as he's appropriately nicknamed, has, in his lifetime, purchased a $50,000 diamond iPod case, had a candy shop in his own house at one point, and, reportedly, buys underwear and sneakers every day (via Insider). To put it frankly, he's not hurting for loot.

So it was a surprise when talking to radio personality Kelly Mac, he confessed that he does not feel obligated to give to charities, specifically in Africa. "People say well, he got all this money, why is he not giving to Africa?" starts Mayweather. "Well, what has Africa given to us? What has Africa came and gave to my children and to my family? Things work two ways," he continued.

Floyd also might be tone-deaf, considering his stance on social issues. While people were boycotting Gucci due to blackface allegations over a controversial sweater, "Champ" (his other nickname) decided to buy them all up, telling TMZ, "I don't got nothing against nobody ... I support everybody. I like everybody. My thing is this, I like to live life and do what I like to do. I'm not no follower, I do what the f**k I wanna do. Because everybody says, "Wear this, or don't wear this.' I'm going to wear what the f**k I want to wear."

Barry Bonds doesn't really hide his disdain for fans, no matter how loyal and genuine of a supporter you are. According to Daily Camera, one fan, for example, once lamented to Bonds that he'd been trying to get his autograph for years only to get the response: "I want you to keep your streak active." In another instance, the San Francisco slugger ripped a 12-year-old fan's card that was given to him to sign.

Since retired, he's admitted to leaning into the villain role, revealing that he played a part in how he was perceived in an interview with Sports On Earth (via NBC Sports). "I mean, I was just flat-out dumb. What can I say? I'm not going to try to justify the way I acted toward people. I was stupid. It wasn't an image that I invented on purpose. It actually escalated into that, and then I maintained it. You know what I mean? It was never something that I really ever wanted. No one wants to be treated like that, because I was considered to be a terrible person. You'd have to be insane to want to be treated like that. That makes no sense," he said to the publication.

Jose Canseco is probably most infamously known for his steroid use. The former Oakland Athletics slugger is even on record saying: "Steroids, used correctly, will not only make you stronger and sexier, they will also make you healthier," in his memoir, "Juiced." In the memoir (via Slate), he also said that "steroids will give you a better quality of life and also drastically slow down the aging process."

But beyond him taking steroids, which shows a disregard for the integrity of the game (and fans), Canseco simply wasn't nice. The New York Times reported that he once threatened to bash in a fan's head after incorrectly hearing the fan make a racial slur. Similarly, Canseco has been caught sending his twin brother in place of himself at autograph signings and, according to reports, challenged a fan to a fight once (via Chicago Tribune).

While one shouldn't expect much from someone who blatantly cheats without remorse, it's always surprising when the innocent fans get the short end of the stick.

While Conor McGregor has endeared himself to fans who resonated with his blue collar plumber beginnings in Dublin that gave way to superstardom as a mixed martial arts fighter in the UFC, sometimes the humility that comes with such a past escapes his psyche. Those ingredients make for a potentially brutal scenario when factoring in the pugilist's strength and volatile temperament when he's demonstrated his contempt for fellow working stiffs. Rewind back to 2019, while swilling at a Dublin pub, the fighter offered a senior patron a shot of Proper Twelve whiskey he was promoting. When the man declined the offer, McGregor went ballistic and punched him in front of witnesses. "The man that was allegedly assaulted is from Ballyfermot and drinks in the pub a good bit," said one of them to Mirror.

That same year, he was arrested in Miami for destroying the cellphone owned by a man wanting to take the star athlete's picture. Authorities reported that McGregor slapped the phone out of the man's hand before stomping on the device, valued at $1,000. After being released on bail, McGregor posted a shot of him on Instagram leaving custody with a few reassuring words to his fans. "Patience in the world is a virtue I continue to work on," he wrote. "I love my fans dearly. Thank you all." The plaintiff, who lived outside the U.S., dropped charges after deciding against returning to the country to pursue legal action, per BBC.

Not many grappling warriors brandish stats in hype sheets trotted out by both the UFC and WWE circuits. Scarcer still, are female crossovers between the two camps, which is why Ronda Rousey stands out. The mixed martial arts pugilist specializing in judo anecdotally surmised her intensity level in 2014 when chatting with The New Yorker. "I always think to myself, If I ran into them in a parking lot, and they slapped my little sister, would I be able to beat the hell out of them?" she said. "And the answer is always Yes, I would."

But she got an earful when she addressed the fiction surrounding wrestling, even doubling down on Twitter by declaring, "Anyone who is outraged by me calling pro wrestling 'fake fights for fun' has never been in a REAL fight." The reaction prompted Rousey to throw even her own fans under the bus, when she appeared on "Wild Ride with Steve-O," to offer her perspective to the former "Jackass" star. "So it's just like, what am I doing it for if I'm not being able to spend my time and energy on my family, but instead spending my time and my energy on a bunch of f***ing ungrateful fans that don't even appreciate me?" she said. "I love performing. I love the girls. I love being out there, but, at the end of the day, I was just like, 'F**k these fans, dude.'"