It's a hard fall from the glories of the sporting world to the terrifying and often demeaning
world of prison.
Here are some athletes who have unfortunately ended up behind bars since their playing days
have ended.
Javaris Crittenton had the potential to be a major NBA star.
He was a standout at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy and put up good numbers as the starting
point guard for Georgia Tech.
In 2007, he was drafted in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Then he moved to L.A. and celebrated his newfound fame by joining a street gang.
In 2011, Crittenton's cousin drove him around some neighborhoods in Atlanta, looking for
a rival gang member that had allegedly robbed them.
Crittenton fired shots, but missed the man and instead killed a 22-year-old innocent
bystander and mother of four.
As part of a plea deal, Crittenton pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 23 years
in prison.
Wide receiver Sam Hurd spent five years with the Dallas Cowboys and one season with the
Chicago Bears, collecting a total of 53 receptions and 739 receiving yards.
He stayed busy off the field, too, hosting a Cowboys radio show called Inside the Huddle.
Another way he kept himself busy was drug trafficking.
In 2011, Hurd was arrested outside a Chicago steakhouse, when he received a kilogram of
cocaine from an undercover officer.
That same night, he reportedly told the officer that he wanted to buy up to 10 kilograms of
cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana on a weekly basis.
And it didn't end there.
In 2013, he received a 15-year prison term for being part of a group that was trying
to set up a three-state cocaine and marijuana distribution ring.
As a kick returner in the NFL, David Meggett led the league in punt return yards in his
rookie season of 1989, earning him a berth in the Pro Bowl.
In his second season, he once more led the league in punt return yardage and won a Super
Bowl with the New York Giants.
He continued to put up big numbers with various teams, all the way until he retired in 1998.
After his playing days, Meggett built up a troubling rap sheet.
He was arrested in Toronto for assaulting an escort, and he was also convicted of misdemeanor
battery after being accused of assaulting an ex-girlfriend.
Then, in January 2009, he was accused of assaulting a college student in her South Carolina home.
He claimed the encounter was consensual, as part of an agreement to pay back a debt.
The plaintiff admitted that she indeed owed Meggett $200 at the time of the crime, but
he still ended up sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison.
As a teenager living in California in the 1980s, Mark Rogowski was in the right place
at the right time.
He was among the first wave of professional skateboarders who brought mainstream attention
to the sport.
By age 14, he was winning competitions around California, and by 17 he was earning more
than $100,000 a year in winnings and endorsements.
But while cohorts like Tony Hawk became legends, Rogowski self-destructed, drinking and partying
hard.
Then things got really dark.
In 1991, shortly after his girlfriend broke up with him, he ran into a woman named Jessica
Bergsten, a friend of his ex whom he hadn't seen in a while.
He later said that Bergsten reminded him too much of his ex.
That's why he assaulted her and strangled her to death.
He left her body in a surfboard bag and buried her in the California desert.
He was later sentenced to 31 years to life.
A star running back at the University of Oklahoma, Stanley Wilson was selected in the ninth round
of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
He wasn't as solid a pro as he was in college, but that was mainly because he struggled greatly
with an addiction to cocaine.
For violating the NFL's drug policy, Wilson was suspended for the entirety of both the
1985 and 1987 seasons.
He made it back to the Bengals in 1988, helping his team reach the Super Bowl.
But he wasn't able to play in the big game, because the night before a coach caught him
high on cocaine.
The Bengals lost, and under the NFL's "three strikes and you're out" rule, Wilson was banned
from the league for life.
"I believe in my heart if we'd have had him in that ballgame, we would have won that ballgame
going away.
It wouldn't have been a close game"
Continuing to be haunted by drug and mental health issues throughout the '90s, Wilson
finished the decade by stealing an estimated $130,000 worth of jewelry, cameras, and other
valuables from a house in Beverly Hills.
He had already served time for breaking into two houses in Long Beach, so he was sentenced
harshly under California's own "three strikes and you're out rule."
His 1999 sentence was for 23 years, so he's scheduled to be released in 2022.
Linebacker Eric Naposki signed with the New England Patriots in 1988 before he was traded
to the Indianapolis Colts the following year.
But he got a lot more playing time when he switched over to the World League of American
Football, helping lead the Barcelona Dragons to a World Bowl title in 1997.
But since 2011, Naposki's spent his post-playing days behind bars for a crime committed way
back in 1994.
At that time, he was seeing a woman named Nanette Packard, who was also dating a man
named William McLaughlin.
She was the beneficiary of McLaughlin's $1 million life insurance policy, which paid
out when he was found dead in his home, shot six times.
Packard was charged and imprisoned, but police lacked evidence to definitively tie Naposki
to the murder.
"I thought it was gonna come down to evidence, which they don't have any."
However, new evidence was later discovered, linking him to the murder.
He was charged in 2009 with being the trigger man, and in 2011 he was sentenced to life
without parole.