15 Athletes Who Wouldn't Pass an IQ Test
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These days, athletes aren't the brightest human beings out there. Some are smart, but many of them pass up an opportunity to play in college just to make it to the professional level and it shows with their lack of common sense and street smarts.
Let's take a look at 15 athletes who would likely have trouble with an IQ test.
Honorable Mention: Manti Te'o
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Honorable Mention: Manti Te'o
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It's really tough to put Te'o in this group since he graduated from Notre Dame, but his degree wasn't exactly the most impressive -- he was a design major. The former Fighting Irish linebacker claimed he had a girlfriend who had died after a car accident while she was battling leukemia.
All of that was a lie that he had constructed, later denying, and he later revealed that he had been lied to. His story was a little fishy and poorly worded.
15. Hedo Turkoglu
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15. Hedo Turkoglu
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You have to be a certain kind of stupid if you fail a steroid test -- in the NBA. Yes, Hedo Turkoglu was just that dumb and possibly the only basketball player ever to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He also hit us with the "my trainer gave me meds to recover and I didn't know they were illegal" line. Nice try, Hedo.
14. J.R. Smith
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14. J.R. Smith
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It seems that everything J.R. Smith does is idiotic. From untying his opponents shoes on the free throw line to threatening to send out his "street homies" and put Detroit "on smash" after a Twitter altercation with Brandon Jennings. Yeah, not the brightest crayon in the box.
13. Aaron Hernandez
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13. Aaron Hernandez
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This one pretty much writes itself. Hernandez was always kind of a bad seed and a troublemaker, but the fact that he was sent to jail for allegedly killing someone, actually multiple people, because of stupid altercations is just ridiculous. If anyone could potentially break the Stupid-O-Meter, it's Hernandez.
12. Antonio Cromartie
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12. Antonio Cromartie
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It's not the fact that Antonio Cromartie has 12 children with eight different women -- although that is pretty dumb -- but when he was on Hard Knocks, he had trouble naming them. He forgot a few names and even a few kids when he was asked to state the name and age of each of his children.
11. Chris Leak
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11. Chris Leak
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Not many people realized that former Florida quarterback Chris Leak was unintelligent. To be a quarterback at the collegiate and pro levels, you must be very smart -- and that's probably why Leak never made it in the NFL. When taking his pre-draft Wonderlic Test, Leak scored one of the lowest numbers ever -- just an eight. The highest you can get is a 50. Yeah, not so good.
10. Frank Gore
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10. Frank Gore
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Another guy who is expected to be smart because as a running back, you have to read defenses and find holes in the offensive line to run through with great vision as well. Frank Gore is one of the NFL's better running backs, but you would never guess it by looking at his Wonderlic score of just six. That is tied for the lowest score ever.
9. Joel Zumaya
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9. Joel Zumaya
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It's hard to tell if Joel Zumaya was dumb on purpose or if that's just really how he was. The hard-throwing relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers was a promising young player who had the potential to be great, but he ruined his career with too much Guitar Hero. Yes, he blew out his arm multiple times because he spent countless hours playing Guitar Hero.
If you're flabbergasted, you aren't alone.
8. Derrick Rose
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8. Derrick Rose
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In a Deadspin article from 2009, Rose was exposed for his inability to excel in school. In fact, reports surfaced that he actually needed help getting into college so some of his final grades were altered for that to happen. He is also involved in an SAT scandal that came about when he left college -- people were likely taking tests for him.
If those are the cases, he must not have a lick of smarts to his name.
7. Adam Jones
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7. Adam Jones
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Adam "Pacman" Jones was such a terrible troublemaker that he nearly cost himself millions in contract dollars because of poor life choices. He hired body guards to help keep him in line and then he proceeded to try and fight one of the body guards he hired. Talk about a self-conflicting bonehead.
6. Fab Melo
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6. Fab Melo
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This one could go either way. Melo is a former Syracuse basketball star who was born in Brazil but went to high school in Florida, prepping him for a life of basketball in America. However, he was deemed ineligible, academically, in the NCAA Tournament in 2012 -- he had trouble with his school work because he "had a tough time understanding English."
You be the judge on this case.
5. Sebastian Janikowski
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5. Sebastian Janikowski
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Kickers don't exactly have to be smart. You see the ball, and you kick it really, really far. Sebastian Janikowski has made his living being one of the best kickers in the NFL, but it wasn't his smarts that got him there. The NFL vet scored a measly eight on his Wonderlic Test and proved that kickers don't need no education.
4. Vince Young
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4. Vince Young
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Ah, a nice heartwarming story about an NFL bust. Vince Young was one of the best college quarterbacks of the 21st Century before having anxiety issues and other internal problems, leading him to wander from team to team. The once-promising quarterback was another who failed to prove his smarts before the NFL Draft, scoring a six on his Wonderlic.
3. JaVale McGee
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3. JaVale McGee
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A constant contributor to Shaquille O'Neal's "Shaqtin' a Fool" segment on TNT's NBA pre and postgame coverage, JaVale McGee makes more air-headed plays than anyone in the league. Let's just say this guy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and Shaq makes that known with millions of weekly viewers.
2. Ryan Lochte
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2. Ryan Lochte
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Ryan Lochte swims and doesn't have much else to fall back on. The young swimmer has killed it in the Olympics, winning medal after medal, but his common sense out of the pool is in the area of dangerous to society. Lochte should just live by the phrase "just keep swimming" uttered by Dori in Finding Nemo because there isn't much else he can do -- as evidenced by his failed reality show.
1. Morris Claiborne
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1. Morris Claiborne
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Despite posting just a six on his Wonderlic Test, Morris Claiborne was still picked sixth overall in the 2012 NFL Draft out of LSU. However, that score of six was very telling as many have regarded the cornerback as one of the worst to ever take the pre-draft test.
Connor Muldowney is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Connormuldowney , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google . You can also reach him at [email protected] .
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