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15 Sports Stars Who Were Flat Out Bizarre

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By @jetleli

Picking Out the Weirdest Professional Athletes Ever

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The sports world is filled with a number of eccentric personalities, but there is a certain class of athletes that stands out from the pack for being straight up weird. In honor of this group, I have identified the weirdest athletes in sports history.

15. Dennis Rodman

dennis rodman weirdest athletes
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15. Dennis Rodman

dennis rodman weird athletes
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Dennis Rodman has never been seen as being remotely normal, but he cemented a position as an absolute weirdo by going to hang out with Kim Jong-un. And yes, that is the North Korean dictator who is amongst the worst human rights violators in the world today.

14. Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

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14. Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

mark fidrych weird athletes
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Mark "The Bird" Fidrych rose to fame by talking to the baseball on the mound for the Detroit Tigers while gaining the 1976 American League Rookie of the Year Award. Arm injuries unfortunately derailed Fidrych's career, and the world realized how weird it is for a grown man to actually talk to a baseball in front of 50,000 people.

13. Yogi Berra

yogi berra weird athletes
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13. Yogi Berra

yogi berra weird athletes
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Yogi Berra is not especially weird, but he often says strange things that leave people shaking their heads. These phrases have become known as Yogisms, and they have cemented the New York Yankees legend as a guy who always has to be watched, or at least listened to.

12. Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding weird athletes
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12. Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding weird athletes
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You have to be very weird to want to injure an opponent instead of beating them through skill, and Tonya Harding attempted to do just that at the 1994 U.S. Skating Championships. Since this attempted assault on Nancy Kerrigan, Harding has become a national pariah, and rightfully so.

11. Nyjer Morgan

weird athletes nyjer morgan
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11. Nyjer Morgan

weird athletes nyjer morgan
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Morgan is strange in the sense that he makes up alter egos for himself, which is something that parents are worried about in their 4-year-old child.

10. Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona weird athletes
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10. Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona bizarre athletes
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Maradona is one of the most eccentric athletes in sports history, and he has even remained a loose cannon on and off the field in retirement.

9. Patrick Roy

patrick roy strange athletes
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9. Patrick Roy

patrick roy strange athletes
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Patrick Roy was absolutely great on the ice and is now a great coach for the Colorado Avalanche, but that doesn't mean he isn't a bit weird. Roy has never shown an ability to back down from a fight, and he maintains the typical strangeness that people identify with goalies.

8. Mike Tyson

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8. Mike Tyson

mike tyson weird athletes
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Mike Tyson can go from being a perfectly normal and relatable person one day to doing absurd things on television the next day. The sad thing is that this routine has been going on for more than 20 years, and onlookers still don't know which persona is the real Tyson.

7. Ilya Bryzgalov

Ilya Bryzgalov weird athletes
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7. Ilya Bryzgalov

Ilya Bryzgalov weird athletes
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Ilya Bryzgalov is the typical Russian shown in American movies; he has tons of unimportant information to share, and he maintains a thick accent. The result has been that people view Bryzgalov as an absolutely strange guy.

6. Terrell Owens

Terrell Owens weird athletes
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6. Terrell Owens

Terrell Owens weird athletes
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Terrell Owens hated more of his own quarterbacks than any wide receiver in NFL history, and he let the public know. Things began to get weird when Owens played with the Philadelphia Eagles, as he did interviews while doing situps in his driveway and then attempted to do a couple unsuccessful reality television shows.

5. Mario Balotelli

mario balotelli weird athletes
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5. Mario Balotelli

mario balotelli weird athletes
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Mario Balotelli is one of the most eccentric athletes in sports today, and he is the subject of ire from fans all over the world. Balotelli never shies away from hate from fans, though, and in turn he tends to do some pretty questionable things.

4. Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams weird athletes
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4. Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams weird athletes
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Ricky Williams is perhaps the only athlete in sports history to take a year off to simply hang out and smoke weed. Yes, Williams actually did this in 2004.

3. John Daly

weird athletes John Daly
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3. John Daly

John Daly weird athletes
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John Daly has never lived the life of a typical golfer, as he isn't afraid to light up a cigarette on the golf course and has previously been an avid drinker. Throughout all the hoopla around Daly, it is hard not to walk away thinking he is a bit strange.

2. Manny Ramirez

Manny Ramirez weird athletes
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2. Manny Ramirez

Manny Ramirez weird athletes
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Manny Ramirez did so many strange things in left field for the Boston Red Sox that fans, players and pundits alike just began to say "Oh, that's Manny Being Manny".

1. Clinton Portis

weird atheltes Clinton Portis
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1. Clinton Portis

weird athletes Clinton Portis
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Clinton Portis made a habit of dressing up in weird costumes every week while playing for the Washington Redskins, which was both strange and entertaining. Nevertheless, for this list the habits will justifiably be labelled as strange.

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