Athletes Who Cheated With Their Teammate's Wife
In the wide world of sports, athletes often form intense bonds with their teammates and their teammates' significant others. It only makes sense considering the seasons spent sweating, winning, and losing alongside each other. But sometimes these close quarters on and off the playing field can lead to jealousies, love triangles, and drama. For instance, former San Francisco 49ers defensive end Aldon Smith once dated quarterback Colin Kaepernick's longtime girlfriend Nessa Diab, which reportedly led to a rift between the two teammates.
When the subject of Kaepernick, Smith, and teammates getting involved with the same people came up on an episode of ESPN's "First Take," NFL alum Ryan Clark explained, "It's a small world. ... You live in these towns, you live in these cities, and you meet the same people. So there have been guys who have dated the same woman." However, Clark points out that an unwritten "locker room code," would require the athletes to talk about it and decide whether or not the relationship could cause a fracture in the camaraderie of the team. "It's a level of respect you give to a guy because of the feelings you know he had for a person," he added. So what happens when an athlete majorly goes against this code and starts an affair with their teammate's significant other? Things can get messy. Let's take a closer look at a few of these examples.
Wayne Carey is 'haunted' by affair
Wayne Carey and Anthony Stevens were teammates on the Australian football team North Melbourne Kangaroos. This is why when the married Carey was revealed to be having an affair with Anthony's wife, Kelli Stevens, it became a national scandal, per Yahoo! Sport.
According to Carey's memoir, "The Truth Hurts," the year was 2002 and he and Kelli Stevens had a fling that went on for about a month before they agreed to stop. Several weeks later however, the Kangaroos were celebrating the birthday of a teammate's wife when all was revealed. At some point during the party, Carey went to the bathroom and Mrs. Stevens followed him in. An intense argument ensued that revealed the true nature of their relationship to their spouses and to everyone at the party. Wayne Carey promptly left the Kangaroos after the scandal. "I destroyed my relationship with my wife, I lost my career, I lost most of my friends and I lost my dignity. I also lost my family at North Melbourne," he wrote. And as it turns out, he's still not over it. As he said on an episode of "SAS Australia," "It's haunted me for 20 years."
Tony Parker got caught texting
Infidelity spurred drama between basketball teammates Tony Parker and Brent Barry who shared the court on the San Antonio Spurs. In 2010, reporter Bryan Armen Graham tweeted out a bombshell revelation: "Have it on good authority from entertainment sources that 'former teammate' in Tony Parker-Eva Longoria affair is Brent Barry." Parker was married to "Desperate Housewives" actor Eva Longoria when he embarked on an illicit text message affair with Brent's wife, Erin Barry. Reportedly the affair went on for about a year before all was revealed, but apparently it did not go beyond text messages. A source told The New York Post, "There was no physical relationship between Tony and Erin." According to Graham, Longoria discovered the incriminating messages on her husband's phone and filed for divorce shortly thereafter. Brent and Erin promptly headed to the divorce court as well, according to OK! Magazine.
It sounds like this all lined up with Parker's reputation as a teammate. On his podcast "All the Smoke" (via Fadeaway World), Parker and Brent's teammate Stephen Jackson said, "[Parker] will talk to your girl as you close your eyes or hit the bathroom." Longoria has also openly discussed her ex-husband's infidelity and confirmed that his affair was the main reason for their split. In an interview with Amanda de Cadenet on "The Conversation," Longoria said that retrospectively the greatest advice she never followed was, "Don't marry that basketball player!"
The messy tweets about DeMarco Murray
Long before DeMarco Murray was a Dallas Cowboys running back, the NFL star played for the University of Oklahoma. During his college years, he was teammates with Brennan Clay, who many years later would say Murray cuckolded him. Clay took to Twitter in December 2014 to accuse Murray and his wife, Gina D'Agnostini, of having an affair. "Gina and Demarco's exchange Oct. 5th after I kissed her two kids goodbye at the airport," he tweeted, followed by photos of the alleged illicit text message conversation between his wife and former teammate.
Murray never publicly responded to the accusations and Clay seemed to delegitimize his own claim when a few weeks later he tweeted, "Jumped to a conclusion that wasn't true ..can't judge a situation without knowing all the facts" along with a picture of him with his wife, via TMZ. Thus, it's hard to decipher what the actual facts were at the end of the day.
According to TMZ, Clay and Agnostini separated in 2015. Clay was arrested for a domestic abuse incident shortly after. In January of that same year, Murray married his longtime girlfriend Heidi Mueller.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Rick Manning married his teammate's wife
Baseball stars Dennis Eckersley and Rick Manning were best friends when they played together in Cleveland in the 1970s. But right around the time that Eckersley was traded to the Boston Red Sox, where he would go on to build a legendary reputation, he found out that his wife had been cheating on him with his teammate and pal. "I was hurt at first...but Denise and I were kids when we got married. We were 18 and didn't know anything," he told Sports Illustrated in a 1988 interview.
Apparently the managers of the team caught wind of the affair and that was the real reason he was traded to the Red Sox. In "The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump" by Terry Pluto, Gabe Paul, the former general manager of the team now known as the Cleveland Guardians, divulged, "It was a bad situation, and we had to trade Rick or Dennis. We thought Manning was going to be a star. ... We had to do something, but we traded the wrong guy." After Eckersley divorced his wife, Manning married the former Mrs. Eckersley, though their marriage eventually fell apart as well.
All these years later, Eckersley, who became a color commentator after he hung up his cleats, seems to have a sense of humor about the drama. When the subject of rivalries came up during a 2018 game, he quipped, "I had a real close friend who stole my wife. How about that?"
Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapped spouses
In 1973, various outlets reported that two New York Yankees players had made an announcement about a trade. But it wasn't a typical baseball trade. Teammates Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich declared they had fallen in love with each other's wives and were swapping families. "It's a love story. It wasn't anything dirty," Peterson told The Palm Beach Post in 2013. As it turns out, falling in love with your teammate's wife doesn't always end badly.
The two couples started hanging out and realized they got along with each other's spouses. Kekich was the first to come up with the idea. "Mike started to campaign for my wife in August. He talked to me seriously about it. He told his own wife, Susan, that he loved Marilyn more," Peterson said at the news conference in 1973, per ESPN.
Despite it originally being Kekich's idea, his relationship with the former Mrs. Peterson didn't last very long. In fact, they never even got married. Peterson's new marriage with the former Mrs. Kekich, on the other hand, is still going strong. Forty years after the swap went down, Peterson told The Palm Beach Post, "I could not be happier with anybody in the world. 'Mama' and I go out and party every night. We're still on the honeymoon and it has been a real blessing.” That said, he does admit he feels guilty that his old teammate Kekich didn't end up as lucky.