20 worst NFL players of all time

Take a look at our list of the Top-20 worst NFL players of all time.


20 worst NFL players of all time

(Image via FirstSportz)

The National Football League is one of the biggest and best sporting leagues in the world, having gained immense popularity over the past few decades, and spreading its wings all over the world. Since its inception in 1920, the NFL has seen numerous players battle it out on the gridiron.

Just like our bodies, where the five fingers are not equal, not every player in the NFL is the same. Over the course of the past 100 years, the NFL has produced some of the finest footballers in the history of sports, while many have not been able to achieve that type of success in this field.

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While football fans are very well familiar with the success stories that the NFL has seen in its history, it is also crucial to identify how the other end of the spectrum turned out to be. Therefore, in this article, we take a look into the 20 worst NFL players of all time, who were popular for their off-field shenanigans, which were predominantly criminal activities rather than making a name for themselves in football.

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#20. Richie Incognito

Richie Incognito (via Pro Football Rumours)
Richie Incognito (via Pro Football Rumours)

Opening the list of the worst NFL players of all time, is former Oakland Raiders guard, Richie Incognito. He had a 16-year-long career in the NFL, but most of the time he was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Plagued by behavioral issues throughout his career, Incognito had numerous incidents of physical violence with teammates, alongside being arrested with three counts of assault. To make things worse, he was also accused of being racist during his time at the Miami Dolphins, wherein he bullied Jonathan Martin and the franchise’s athletic training staff by threatening them.

#19. Sam Hurd

Sam Hurd (via AL.com)
Sam Hurd (via AL.com)

Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Sam Hurd’s NFL career started in 2006 but ended on a sour note in 2011 right after he had signed a three-year contract with the Chicago Bears. Hurd’s career turned upside down when he was arrested for allegedly attempting to purchase and distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana. He was sentenced to a 15-year jail term, which was later reduced to 10, and the wide receiver was eventually released in 2023.

#18. Greg Hardy

Greg Hardy (via Dallas Morning News)
Greg Hardy (via Dallas Morning News)

No prize for guessing that Greg Hardy too had more influence off the pitch than on the gridiron. However, his NFL career started off on a promising note with the Carolina Panthers, and he spent four years at the franchise. In 2014, it turned south for him after he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Even then, he was signed by the Cowboys in 2015, but things turned messy once again when he was arrested for possession of cocaine.

#17. Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson (via The New York Times)
Adrian Peterson (via The New York Times)

Former Seattle Seahawks running back, Adrian Peterson played in the NFL as recently as 2021, but his career was one mired with controversy throughout. Peterson earned a season-long suspension in 2014 (except for one game) due to physical abuse caused towards his four-year-old son. The child suffered horrendous injuries as he allegedly beat him with a wooden stick.

The running back pled guilty, but returned to his old ways once again when he assaulted his wife on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston. Despite his on-field heroics, which include an NFL MVP award, his off-field behavior left a lot to be desired due to which he features in this unwanted list.

#16. Christian Peter

Christian Peter (via New York Post)
Former Giants man, Christian Peter (via New York Post)

Christian Peter is a perfect example of what not to become when you’re aspiring to be an NFL player. The 1996 NFL Draft pick was cut down by the New England Patriots even before the start of training camp after owner Myra Kraft learned about his inexplicable past, which included numerous crimes.

The biggest of them all was when a woman accused her of raping her in 1991 during his freshman year. If that isn’t enough to make you believe, he should be on this list. Peter also choked a woman in a Nebraska bar and got convicted for that too. His NFL career came to an end in 2004 with the Chicago Bears, after having spells at the New York Giants and the Indianapolis Colts.

#15. Lance Rentzel

Lance Rentzel (via Inside the Star)
Lance Rentzel (via Inside the Star)

Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, Lance Rentzel is one of the earliest NFL players featured on the list. During those times, forms of mass media weren’t as active as it is today, but even then, Rentzel’s crimes did not go unnoticed.

In 1970, Rentzel was arrested by the cops for flashing himself to a 10-year-old girl, and that turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg of his wrongdoings. It later emerged that he was also arrested in 1966 for a similar crime – exposing himself to two young girls. However, his NFL career ended in 1975 after he was indefinitely (ten months) suspended by the league for possession of marijuana.

#14. Cecil Collins

Cecil Collins (via EBRSO)
Cecil Collins (via EBRSO)

Former Miami Dolphins running back, Cecil Collins makes it into the list of NFL players due to his brief tenure of eight games in 1999. In a rather surprising turn of events, Collins was arrested for burglary after he broke into the house of a married woman who he had met at the gym. He claimed that he only wanted to watch her sleep, but that didn’t save him from earning a 15-year jail term.

That wasn’t the first time Collins had broken into a house after it emerged that he was cut out of LSU for the same reason. From a third-person perspective, playing in the NFL was definitely not for him.

#13. Dave Meggett

Dave Megget (via SBNation)
Dave Megget (via SBNation)

Despite having a lengthy NFL career, Dave Meggett was one of the biggest offenders of the law to have emerged from the league. A running back by position, Meggett was a Super Bowl winner for the Giants, but trophies aren’t everything in life.

During his early days, Meggett was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend but was later acquitted by a judge. The biggest talking point of his career came in 2010 when he got arrested for raping and robbing a student. He is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for burglary and criminal sexual conduct, and his earliest escape from prison can happen only in 2034.

#12. Lawrence Phillips

Lawrence Phillips (via omaha.com)
Lawrence Phillips (via omaha.com)

Former San Francisco 49ers running back, Lawrence Phillips was an extremely curious case, as a personality more than his footballing career. Phillips showed an inclination towards physical violence during his college days itself and was arrested a couple of times for the same.

However, he was at his worst when he assaulted his ex-girlfriend and ran over three teenagers for a reported disagreement in a pickup football game. No wonder he was sentenced to 31 years in prison. Even then he decided to take the law into his own hands, as he killed his cellmate in 2015, following which he received the death sentence. He didn’t live long enough to receive the sentence and hanged himself to death in 2016.

#11. Dana Stubblefield

Dana Stubblefield (via Pro Football History)
Dana Stubblefield (via Pro Football History)

Stubblefield’s NFL career began on a very high note after being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1993. He ended up winning the Defensive Rookie of the Season award and also went on to win the Defensive Player of the Year in 1997. However, things started going downhill for Stubblefield after his playing career.

He was involved in the infamous BALCO incident during his time with the Oakland Raiders and pled guilty at having lied to the feds during the investigation. In 2016, he made the news for raping a disabled woman, for which he received a 15-year prison term in 2020.

#10. Kevin Allen

Kevin Allen (via alchetron.com)
Kevin Allen (via alchetron.com)

Making it to the Top-10 of any list isn’t an easy task, and the former Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle, Kevin Allen, is just the perfect man for it. He played in the NFL for only a season before being cut by the Eagles for testing positive for consuming cocaine.

Not only that, but Allen also attacked a couple in New Jersey, along with a friend. Allen raped the woman for which he earned a 15-year prison sentence, but ended up serving only 3 years of that. The suspensions didn’t end there, and the NFL banned him for life, only for him to be reinstated in 1991, however the only positive was that he didn’t play in the league.

#9. Rae Carruth

Rae Carruth (via ABC news)
Rae Carruth (via ABC news)

The less we talk about Rae Carruth, the better for everyone’s mental peace. He played in the NFL for three seasons after being drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 1997.

The wide receiver hired an agent to murder his then-girlfriend, Cherica Adams, who was eight months pregnant with his son at that time. The agent fired four bullets at Adams, while Carruth was present at the scene. Adams eventually succumbed to her wounds but gave birth to a son who has suffered permanent brain damage at the time of his birth. In 2001, Carruth was found guilty of conspiracy and received an 18 to 24 years sentence. He eventually served 18 years and was released recently in 2018.

#8. Tommy Kane

Tommy Kane (via Sports casting)
Tommy Kane (via Sports casting)

Much like the others, Tommy Kane‘s NFL career didn’t last long after being drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 1988. He played for four seasons before being cut off by the franchise due to his constant injury troubles. However, Kane had bigger problems, as would be evidenced by his addiction to drugs, which eventually led him to brutally murder his estranged wife, Tammara Shaikh. It also emerged during the trial that he had a history of violence against women and was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2004.

#7. Eric Naposki

Eric Naposki (via Boston Globe)
Eric Naposki (via Boston Globe)

Former New England Patriots linebacker Eric Naposki played in the NFL for a meager two seasons but gained prominence for his latter role in a gruesome murder. After his playing career, he had an affair with a certain Nanette Johnson in the early 90s, and that’s where the trouble began. Naposki and Johnson plotted the death of the latter’s millionaire husband, Bill McLaughlin, which was confirmed almost 15 years after the crime had been committed. Naposki received a life sentence in 2012, after being convicted of first-degree murder for the death of McLaughlin.

#6. Kellen Winslow Jr.

Kellen Winslow Jr. (via Bleacher Report)
Kellen Winslow Jr. (via Bleacher Report)

One of the latest NFL players to feature in the all-time list of the worst players is Kellen Winslow Jr. The former Cleveland Browns tight end is a convicted sex offender and has a rich history of committing crimes for which he’s currently facing a 14-year prison sentence after a series of rigorous legal battles.

In 2018, he was arrested for burglary, but within a week he got charged with kidnapping and raping two women, which went on to open up an extremely dark avenue into his life. It later emerged that he had raped an unconscious 19-year-old woman during his teens, for which he pleaded guilty in 2019.

#5. Darren Sharper

Darren Sharper (via jacksonville.com)
Darren Sharper (via jacksonville.com)

It only gets worse and cruder from here on in, as Darren Sharper makes it into the list despite being one of the top defensive players of his time. He won the Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints in 2010, but his troubles began after his retirement when claims were made that he had drugged and raped numerous women across the country during his playing days. In 2014, he was eventually charged with multiple sexual assault and drug charges. Sharper received a whopping 20-year prison term in 2016 for the heinous crimes.

#4. Robert Rozier

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Former Cardinals DE, Robert Rozier (via official Twitter)

Robert Rozier was an NFL player for a brief period of time with the St. Louis Cardinals, but is more famous for his involvement in a series of murders that he performed after joining a cult. Rozier was charged with four counts of murder in 1986, but he eventually admitted to killing seven people, which included a federal witness.

For his crimes, Rozier was sentenced to a jail term of 22 years, out of which he ended up serving only 10 due to his cooperation with the authorities. However, that wasn’t the end of his troubles as he got arrested again in 1999 for passing bad checks and is currently serving a 25-year life sentence.

#3. O.J.Simpson

O J Simpson (via Bleacher Report)
O.J.Simpson (via Bleacher Report)

Former Buffalo Bills running back, O. J. Simpson had an extremely successful NFL career, but all his plaudits earned on the gridiron were overshadowed in 1994 when he was arrested. Simpson was accused of murdering his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

After a rigorous trial, which got covered internationally, Simpson was acquitted of those murders. However, that wasn’t the end of his run-ins with the law, as he got arrested once again in 2007 for armed robbery and kidnapping. He received a 33-year imprisonment sentence but got released early in 2021.

#2. Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez (via the Guardian)
Aaron Hernandez (via the Guardian)

Former New England Patriots tight end, Aaron Hernandez was the latest in the long line of criminals who also had a small part to play in the NFL. He was a troublesome character from his college football days but the big talking point came when he murdered his fiance’s sister’s boyfriend, Odin Lloyd, during the 2013 offseason.

Subsequently, he was cut from the franchise and was found guilty of first-degree murder, receiving a life imprisonment sentence. During this trial, he also got indicted for a double homicide of two men in 2012. However, he was later acquitted of the charges in 2017. A couple of days after his acquittal, Hernandez tragically died by suicide inside his own cell.

#1. Randall Woodfield

Randall Woodfield (via 24/7 Wall St.)
Randall Woodfield (via 24/7 Wall St.)

If you think the other 19 NFL players on the list were worse, Randall Woodfield simply took things to another level and is arguably the worst player the league has probably ever seen. The former Green Bay Packers wide receiver was arrested during his high school career, for exposing himself to girls.

If that wasn’t enough, Woodfield’s name was also linked to numerous robberies that led him to be cut off by the Packers. The biggest scandal, however, is yet to come as Woodfield received a 10-year prison sentence for robbing and sexually assaulting women in 1975. He served only four years of that sentence and went on a killing rampage on his release. In 1981, he was arrested for a series of gruesome rapes and killings and he’s suspected to have killed a total of 44 people, earning him the infamous title of I-5 Killer.

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