General

Ten Most Surprising Retirements of All-Time

May 15, 2008, 2:25 PM UTC

Justine Henin yesterday joined a rarified group of athletes – those who have abruptly decided to walk away from their games while they were still on top. It’s a tough thing to do, and history tells us that the chances that she’ll come crawling back to the court are very good indeed. I give her two years tops of sitting around eating waffles and she’ll be yearning for that tournament-a-week WTA grind.â†µâ†µAlso, Henin’s retirement, though impeccably timed for maximum shockliciousness I grant you, still doesn’t make my Top 10 List of All-Time Surprising Sports Retirements. Honestly, I’m not sure she’d make the top 20, if I went that deep (could I go that deep? I think I could ...). But I’ll keep it at 10. Here goes – if I leave out any big ones, give me a break, cause I’m doing this in the most unscientific of fashions:â†µ

â†µâ†µ10. Ricky Williams – Ricky smoke weed. Ricky do yoga. Ricky talk swami. Ricky retire.â†µ

â†µâ†µ9. Rocky Marciano – Nobody ever talks about it anymore, but it surprised the crap out of people when the Rock retired. He was, after all, 32 years old, the undefeated heavyweight champ and one of the most popular athletes in the U.S at the time. â†µ

â†µâ†µ8. Barry Sanders – Walking away with the all-time rushing record in your grasp? Like it just ain’t no thing? Oh the cojones on the man.â†µ

â†µ

â†µ7. Gene Tunney – This Shakespeare-quoting Jack-Dempsey-conqueror retired at the age of 31 to marry an heiress and embark on the path of alcoholism, curmudgeonhood, and a lifelong friendship with George Bernard Shaw. In other words, living the dream.â†µ

â†µâ†µ6. Bjorn Borg – A real shocker. 26 and the McEnroe rivalry just heating up when Borg puts the racket down. The CW is that he knew that Mac had his number and the jig was up. But men, I tend to think that tennis was just interfering too much with the time that he had available for sex.â†µ

â†µâ†µ5. Sugar Ray Leonard – Of course he came back many times, but that first Ray Leonard retirement was a mind-blower. Cosell on the scene, Hagler, black tie event, everyone thinking he’s going to announce the big fight with Marvelous, and WHAM, he pulls the plug. Hollywood, Sugar Ray.â†µ

â†µâ†µ4. Sandy Koufax – Sandy’s last season – 27-9, 3.28, 317 k’s. Enough said.â†µ

â†µâ†µ3. Jim Brown – Ole Jim was shooting The Dirty Dozen in London cause, you know, Jim could act a little bit. So then Art Modell says, “Jim you get back in time for training camp or I’m fining you.” And Jim ponders that and replies, “huh… I retire.” See, no one tells Jim Brown what to do.â†µ

â†µâ†µ2. Michael Jordan – First he retires. Then comes the minor league
â†µbaseball circus act. The freaky-deeky-osity of the whole thing was completely off the charts.â†µ

â†µâ†µ1. Magic Johnson – Not only the most shocking retirement, but one of the most shocking sports moments of all time, period. â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: