With the MLB suspending Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun 65 games for violating the league’s drug policy, Onion Sports takes a look at some of the most significant punishments in the history of athletics.
1881: Buttercup Dickerson of the Worcester Ruby Legs is suspended 40 games “for frequenting Saloons, Gambling Halls, and Dens of Iniquity; and generally evincing a Poor Moral Character not befitting a Worcester Man”
1964-1992: South Africa is banned from the Olympics for refusing to exploit its young black athletes for a multibillion-dollar amateur sporting event the same way it does its other young athletes
1978: Woody Hayes suspended for punching a Clemson linebacker in the face, beginning football’s disturbing trend of bowing to proponents of player safety
1987: Al Davis suspended by the NFL for his role in the Iran-Contra affair
1989: Pete Rose banned from hot action for life
2004: Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams is suspended four games and receives a $650,000 fine for something that was not assaulting an exotic dancer, having sex with an underage prostitute, attempting to have the judge presiding over his drug trafficking trial killed, operating a vicious dog fighting ring, shooting his pregnant girlfriend to death, or drunkenly running over a guy with his car
2005: On his first day back since the infamous brawl that resulted in his ban for the majority of the previous NBA season, Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest is immediately hit with another season-long suspension after returning to the stands to continue the fight
2009: Manny Ramirez gets 50 games despite buying clean urine from a guy and drinking it
2010: Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas receives an indefinite suspension after violating the NBA’s strict policy against storing more than four unloaded firearms in a team locker room
2011: Ndamukong Suh is suspended after breaking the obscure NFL regulation that prohibits stomping on the head of a defenseless player after the play is over
2013: Star Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is given a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball, ending his career in total disgrace and leaving his life a tattered mess
