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The first professional athletes earned peanuts, and so they had to do other jobs to boost their income. This made it difficult for the league to attract talent since the players did not consider sports their first priority. Anyway, the small pay led them into being professionals in other fields and today there are quite a good number of great people who are multi-talented in the world of professional sports. Hollywood always tries to look for succeeding great actors in the sports fields, but mostly they do not find any. Well, the fact that you are a good professional athlete does not mean that you can act. Most athletes retire at 35 while still having more time and opportunities of starting new chapters in different careers. This is why after retiring from sports, most athletes undertake a career in broadcasting while others decide to make good use of their hobbies by turning them into jobs. Others even end up starting up their own businesses.

For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham are just a couple of the notable names that have traded in the gym for a new adventure in the studio. Or another great example was when Drew Bledsoe went for his dream of opening a winery after quitting doing sports professionally. Sometimes when athletes try to be actors after retiring from sports and they do not succeed, leaving the acting jobs to the professionals is the best that they can do. Being a good athlete and a great actor at the same time is not easy. There are a number of athletes who have managed to make the transition from athletes after retirement into Hollywood stars. However, there are some who have tried and failed badly. For example, Michael Jordan, Brian Bosworth, and Dennis Rodman. In this list, we will look at the 15 athletes who were terrible actors and 5 who were great, and here we go.

No: Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan also known by his initials, MJ, is a retired American professional basketball player. He was born on February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York and he is the fourth of five children. For fifteen NBA seasons, Michael Jordan dominated the hardcourt as the world’s best basketball player, earning six NBA Finals MVP Awards (1991–1993, 1996–1998) and five NBA Most Valuable Player Awards (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998). Jordan also played three seasons at the University of North Carolina where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. Jordan soon became one of the most marketed sports figures in history and Nike even created a signature lifestyle brand named after him, called Air Jordan. Jordan went on to star in the 1996 live-action animation Space Jam featuring the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. Even with all of his amazing accomplishments, Jordan never looked comfortable in the role. “...Michael doesn't soar enough....” according to Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune.

No: Vinnie Jones

Vincent Peter Jones, has enjoyed much commercial success off the field. He was born in 1965 in Watford and began his playing career at Wealdstone. The midfielder played for 7 different teams over his 15-year playing career. Jones earned his first international cap for the Wales national team on 14 December, 1994 in a 0-3 loss to Bulgaria and went on to make nine appearances for the national team. After retirement he appeared in different TV shows and his movie chops included Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch, Gone in 60 Seconds, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Longest Yard and others. Jones continued to portray a hard man image after leaving the movies. He played the role of a professional killer in the Kazakhstani film, Liquidator, in 2011, after playing the leader of a Manchester United football hooligan firm in the 2004 film EuroTrip and would often be cast as a ruthless henchman.

No: Hulk Hogan

Terry Ugene Bollea (a.k.a. Hulk Hogan) is an American retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, entrepreneur and musician. Hogan is regarded by many as the greatest professional wrestler of all time. Hogan was born in Georgia but grew up in Florida and was the son of a construction foreman and dance teacher. Hogan made appearances in several television and movie roles. Hogan’s first role was as Thunderlips vis-a-vis Sylvester Stallone in the movie Rocky III (1982). For his second venture into cinema, Hogan appeared in No Holds Barred (1989), before starring in three more movies and his own television series, Thunder in Paradise (1994). In July, 2005, VH1 premiered Hogan Knows Best, a reality show which centered around Hogan, his then-wife Linda, and their children Brooke and Nick. He also released a music CD, Hulk Rules, as Hulk Hogan and The Wrestling Boot Band. Being in the industry for over 30 years, Hulk Hogan emerges as the longest performing athlete on our list. Despite being a star in his wrestling career, Hulk Hogan still appears on our bad list. Even though Hogan’s films are so terrible, one cannot seem to divert their attention when seeing this giant trying to perform everyman roles in his movies.

No: Bruce Jenner

Bruce Jenner changed his name to Caitlyn Marie Jenner and was born on October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York. He was a college football player before incurring a knee injury that required surgery. In 1976 Jenner went on to win the Olympic decathlon event at the Montreal Olympic Games and set a third successive world record while winning the Olympics. Jenner started acting in 1980 in the film Village People, an American musical comedy. This film failed at the Box Office and was the first major motion picture to be nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for the Worst Picture in 1980. Bruce did not quit, however. He continued his acting career and eventually won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. After the first failures in his acting career, Jenner took several more roles in movies including with Adam Sandler, but all of those were highly criticized and eventually failed to be a success.

No: Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal is an American retired professional basketball player who is also known as Shaq. He played his entire 19-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career with six different teams. During his career in the NBA, Shaq won 14 Championships and 3 Final Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards and two scoring titles. After officially retiring from the NBA, Shaq worked as a Basketball analyst and Commentator for TNT (Turner Network TV.) Shaq played a 5,000-year-old Genie in the movie Kazaam then landed a starring role in the movie Blue Chips. In Steel, a movie heavily-panned by critics, Shaq played the role of John Henry, a comic superhero without the fame and fortune. Shaq won the Razzie Award for his role in the superhero film and the movie brought in 12% of its $16 million dollar budget. Despite all the negative reviews, Shaq continues to pursue his acting career. In 2018, Shaq plays Big Fella in the upcoming sports comedy film Uncle Drew.

No: Brian Bosworth

Also known as The Boz, Brian Bosworth was a professional football player who also played as a linebacker for the University of Oklahoma in the mid-eighties. Bosworth often quarreled with his coaches and with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) officials. He was also known for his extreme haircuts. Bosworth’s professional career was cut short. He managed to play for two seasons for the Seattle Seahawks before nagging shoulder injuries ended his career. After retiring from the NFL in 1991, Bosworth decided to start a new chapter in his life in the form of acting. But in the end, acting didn’t work out for him either. Since the time he retired, Bosworth had made 15 film appearances, most of which were limited release, low budget films. He last appeared in the film Do You Believe, a Christian drama directed by Jon Gunn and starring Ted McGinley, Mira Sorvino and Andrea Logan White.

No: Dennis Rodman

Nicknamed, The Worm, Rodman was known for his rainbow-colored hairstyles, aggressive, sometimes dangerous defense, and his rebounding abilities. He was a professional basketball player who played for 14 NBA seasons. After his National Basketball career ended, Rodman took a long break from the game and spent most of his time on his acting career. He acted in the films Double Team and Simon Sez. These films turned out to be awful films partly due to the fact they were poorly written, cheaply made and the acting was terrible. In the movie Double Team, Rodman starred alongside Jean Claude Van Damme and Mickey Rourke. Van Damme’s accent, Rourke’s multiple plastic surgeries and Rodman’s many piercings made the casting of this film one of the worst in cinematic history. But, Simon Sez was undeniably Rodman’s worst film. The script was bad enough but it was Rodman’s lines and his actions that truly sunk this movie.

No: Dan Marino

As a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, nobody would ever question Dan’s prowess on the field. Marino is not only a legendary, nine-time Pro Bowler, he has passed 420 touchdowns in his career as the Miami Dolphins’ starting Quarterback. However, Marino’s acting skills require major improvements as he tried to make it as an actor as well. Marino had roles in such films as Ace Ventura - Pet Detective. In fact, Marino was supposed to play Jim Carrey’s lead role, but the role was so difficult that he could not handle it. In the film, Marino eventually ended up playing himself in the movie where he is abducted by Ray Finkle and then saved by Ventura at the last minute so he can go on to play and to win the Super Bowl. The movie became famous mainly due to the brilliant acting of Jim Carrey however it was also criticized because of some ethical issues critics found in some scenes and lines.

No: Terrell Owens

Terrell Owens spent most of his career playing for such teams as San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills etc. and played 15 seasons in the NFL. While being a brilliant sportsman he struggled to make it as an actor. In fact, he got into acting because he was having some financial issues after he retired. Owens had to make a lot of child support payments to several single moms who he had left. So, he decided to get into acting to help him pay his debts. He played several roles in movies such as Lap Dance, My Dad's A Soccer Mom and Dysfunctional Friends however none of the movies became a success nor helped the ex-sportsman become known for his acting. Although some of the movies were given rather a positive feedback by critics at the beginning, Owens’ performance was never highlighted and he has failed to take bigger roles in the movies since.

No: Lawrence Taylor

Also known as L.T., Lawrence Taylor is widely known as the greatest defensive player of all-time. He was a linebacker from 1981 to 1993 for the New York Giants in the NFL. Taylor was voted into the Hall of Fame and managed to set league records for the first ten years of his career. He became a Super Bowl Champion in 1996. Taylor recorded 182 sacks in 184 games and also played in 15 career playoff games. After retiring from football, Taylor pursued a career in acting, featuring in the Oliver Stone film, Any Given Sunday where he played an aging NFL pass rusher. Another role that Taylor played was in the known comedy The Waterboy with Adam Sandler, however, his acting was far from what the movie became known for. Although Lawrence Taylor was one of the greatest football players of all-time, he is definitely not one of the best athletes turned actors in this list.

No: Brett Favre

Brett Favre, a champion in the International Sports, played football as a quarterback. He has won the Associated Press National Football League MVP consecutively from 1995 to 1997. Also, he once won the Super Bowl Championship against the Patriots in 1997. Favre played for 20 seasons in the NFL. During this time, he played for the following teams: the Green Bay Packers, the New York Jets and the Minnesota Vikings. Out of the 20 seasons, he played 16 seasons for the Green Bay Packers. However, he really kept the team hanging (he was never sure of when he was going to retire) yearly before they decided to let go. After retiring from football, Farve appeared in There’s Something About Mary film starring Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz. Surprisingly enough, Favre ended up declaring his love for Mary when the film was coming to an end, something which contradicts his role whereby he was supposed to show his love for Mary in the film. Though he eventually did it at the finishing, he was unemotional and thus made it an unsatisfactory cameo. Perhaps Drew Bledsoe or Steve Young would have done better than Favre had they been given the chance by the producers.

No: Tom Brady

Yes, Tom Brady is human. Despite being arguably the greatest quarterback of all time and coming off a Super Bowl in which he threw 505 yards at the age of 40, Brady's talents seem to be mostly limited to the football field. Off the field he's done some weird and awkward interviews that just sound so fake. Perhaps that's why his acting performances have largely fallen flat. Brady was a guest voice in The Simpsons and Family Guy and in the movie Entourage he played himself. He's also had cameos in Stuck On You, as a creepy TV production assistant and in Ted 2, playing himself. It's safe to say he only got those two roles because of Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, the stars of those movies, being huge Patriots fans. If Tom Brady's looking for something to do once his off season starts, he might want to consider taking some acting classes. According to The Rock, Brady is terrible.

No: Bob Golic

Bob Golic was a three-time Pro Bowler. Golic played in 14 NFL seasons. Golic played in 187 games. After football, Golic tried acting he was in Saved By The Bell The College Years. Golic was also in Saved By The Bell Wedding In Las Vegas. He was alright in those playing the role of Mike Rogers; an adviser for the University of the show. Golic also has hosted shows in his post playing days. He is also an analyst. Besides Saved By The Bell he was also in The Taking Of Beverly Hills, and Da Vinci's War. In Saved By The Bell, Bob Golic is, by far, the worst actor on the show. We have to wonder if he could play a corpse on CSI convincingly. It’s obvious much of his role was being taken over by Dean McMann by the end of the season. Those were small parts and nothing really big. Unsurprisingly, once he lost some relevance as a football player, the casting directors' calls stopped coming and his acting career mostly fizzled out by the mid-90s.

No: Terry Bradshaw

Terry Bradshaw was a great quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. While he never put up eye popping numbers, he always seemed to make the plays when he had to, as the Steelers won four Super Bowls in six seasons on the backs of the Steel Curtain defence. Bradshaw has largely stayed in the public eye, and as any fan knows, you can catch him every Sunday on Fox. He currently works as an analyst on Fox NFL Sunday. His talents in front of the camera however are different when he's trying to play a character. He was in the movie Failure To Launch, the TV Show Modern Family, and the 8 Simple Rules TV series. He was also in Malcolm In The Middle alongside Howie Long. His role in Failure To Launch was especially cringeworthy, as he even some stupid stuff in one scene. “I just thought it shows the people that I’ve got the guts to do something like that. Which is important for me. It was kind of a brave thing for me. I got a family I got to answer to. I got kids ... my older parents, my preachers and everybody,” he said.

No: Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka is now probably better known for coaching the 1985 Chicago Bears to a one-loss season and a Super Bowl. He was also one good player in his day, as he was one of the game's best tight ends. Since retiring from coaching, Ditka has been on ESPN NFL Countdown and has dabbled in some acting gigs. He played himself in Kicking and Screaming. The role was pretty cheesy, as he joins Will Ferrell's soccer team as his assistant coach, in order to spite Ferrell's dad in the movie, played by Robert Duvall. Ditka played a role that was pretty easy for him, as he just had to be the bad coach compared to Ferrell's character who was pretty docile most of the movie. Kicking & Screaming includes repeated scenes of some low down rotten cheesy stuff and it was just a bad movie altogether. Ditka's had several other TV and movie roles, and he's mostly typecast as a coach.

Yes: Arnold Schwarzenegger

After switching to a movie career, he began to make it big, first in Conan the Barbarian and then other action flicks. He also made some comedies (our favorite is Kindergarten Cop) and he even won a Golden Globe. He also was a world champion athlete, award-winning actor and a California governor! Wow! Known best for his role in The Terminator movies ("I’ll be back"), Arnold began as a pro bodybuilder, winning Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia. When it comes to Terminator it all starts and ends with the original. Sure, it was a low-budget affair that seems tailor-made for the limited acting capabilities of Arnold Schwarzenegger but it’s a remarkable film even now. Often mistaken for a sci-fi, The Terminator is in fact one of the greatest horror movies ever made and here’s why. The Terminator is ruthless, efficient, emotionless and built like a series of well-stacked brick houses, it’s easy to forget that Arnold in this film was about one thing: murder. No jokes, no learning human emotions, murder. He barely has any lines in the movie and one of the best movies of all time.

Yes: Jason Statham

Statham was a top diver (he was in the 1990 Commonwealth Games and the 1992 world championships but just missed Great Britain’s Olympic team three times) then went into acting. Like Schwarzenegger, he’s been villains in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, plus the Fast and Furious sequels. Alas, the diver wasn’t in Million Dollar Mermaid but he is in the International Sports Hall of Fame. Jason has been in more than just one good movie, but War is one of the best. War is a surprising film in several respects, choosing to prioritise its twisting, turning plot over and above the action, which is relatively minimal for a film that stars both Statham and Jet Li. War is also so full of double crosses and betrayals, that anything less than full attention will leave you struggling to keep up, as the F.B.I. find themselves stuck in the middle of a gang war between the Triads and Yakuza.

Yes: Dwayne Johnson

Known as, The Rock, Johnson played football at the University of Miami, tried out for but didn’t make the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders, then went into the WWF where he became a big star. He’s become one of the current biggest stars in movies, with films ranging from Fast and the Furious sequels to Jumanji to even the Tooth Fairy. He’s so widely talented he sang You’re Welcome in the 2016 Oscar-nominated animated film Moana which I doubt he ever did in the wrestling ring. Johnson has had many hit films, but the best is his role in the Furious films. The Fast and the Furious films, which started off as drag-race movies but morphed, over time, into an outlandishly extravagant genre all their own, one with just enough heart — and, yes, mind — to make the stunts and velocity seem like something larger, are a pure expression of character. If this series, over the last 16 years, has taught us anything, it’s that just when you think it’s about to run out of gas, it gets outfitted with an even more elaborate fuel-injection system. That’s never been truer than it is of the Furious films. Johnson make them.

Yes: Carl Weathers

A football star at San Diego State, Carl Weathers played professionally with the Oakland Raiders, acting in local stage productions during the off-season. Weathers went on to play with the British Columbia Lions in the Canadian Football League, then retired from sports in 1974, so he was better to devote all his time to an acting career. After being in service in a handful of exploitation flicks, he rose to fame as the Muhammad Ali-inspired Apollo Creed in the first Rocky film. Apollo Creed's adversarial relationship with Rocky Balboa mellowed into warm friendship in the course of the next three Rocky installments; indeed, when Apollo was killed off by super boxer Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (1985), the tragedy served as the motivation for the retired Rocky to climb into the ring yet once more. Apollo isn't a bad guy. He's just self-involved—Apollo Creed is more of a brand than it is the name of a fighter. Everything he does is cultivated around maintaining his All-American image. He gives Rocky, a snow-white underdog, a shot at the title, just to show that he's magnanimous. He even arrives in the ring dressed as George Washington and Uncle Sam.

Yes: Burt Reynolds

He played football at Florida State and wanted to be an All-American but several injuries ended that career. So, he went into acting and became a huge star in Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit and The Longest Yard. The latter was about a prison football game, and included actual players like Ray Nitschke, Sonny Sixkiller and Joe Kapp. Reynolds is best known for his killer performances in the Smokey and the Bandit films. The Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a maverick race car driver, makes an $80,000 bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX, to Atlanta within 28 hours. It's important to note that in 1977, it was illegal to sell the Coors brand east of the Mississippi River without a permit; if we don't note that, then the plot won't make sense at times. Already in danger of arrest from redneck lawmen like Buford T. Justice, Bandit furthers his chances at a stiff jail term when he offers a ride to Carrie, who hopes to escape her unwanted wedding to Justice's boy. Burt takes his part and makes it a non-stop adventure for the viewer.

References: silb.co.uk, theolballgame.com, commonsensemedia.org, grantland.com, cbssports.com, the80smovieclub.co.uk, people.com, variety.com, shmoop.com, rottentomatoes.com