With four NHL players facing serious charges for a 2018 incident in a London hotel room, their personal legal and professional futures are up in the air.
Unfortunately, they aren’t the only athletes to have faced serious accusations while playing professionally in recent years.
Here are some stars of the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB and soccer that have been under investigation for rape and sexual assault.
Conor McGregor
The Irish MMA star is one of the biggest stars in UFC history, but he is also one of the most controversial. Several times over his career McGregor has been accused of assault, sexual assault and rape. The most recent was during the 2023 NBA Finals, when McGregor was accused by a woman of trying to force her to perform oral sex in a bathroom at Kaseya Center in Miami. The state attorney’s office declined to press charges after an investigation, though. In 2019, McGregor also was investigated by Dublin police over two different accusations of sexual assault and was at one point arrested and questioned before being released. No charges were brought on either case. As for his career in UFC, McGregor is reportedly eyeing a return to the octagon, but hasn’t fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021. The Irishman has denied the allegations against him.
Wander Franco
The Tampa Bay Rays all-star shortstop currently is under investigation in his native Dominican Republic after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. He appeared in court on Wednesday, as mandated, but has yet to be charged. The Rays put him on the restricted list on Aug. 13 before MLB put him on indefinite administrative leave. His status for the coming 2024 season is pending the result of the investigation.
Trevor Bauer
In July 2021, the Los Angeles Dodgers starter was accused of sexual assault by a California woman and placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball. This leave lasted the rest of the season and continued into 2022, when he was suspended for 324 games without pay for a violation of the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy by commissioner Rob Manfred. The former Cy Young Award winner, who maintained his innocence throughout the process, countersued the accuser and played the 2023 season in Japan. Bauer and his accuser dropped their lawsuits against each in late 2023 and he hopes to return to the big leagues, but remains a free agent.
Mason Greenwood
The Manchester United youngster had broken into the club’s first team before his career went off the rails midway through his third full season in the Premier League. In Jan. 2022, Greenwood was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault after his girlfriend, Harriet Robson, posted pictures of herself bloodied and bruised as well as a recording in which she is threatened with rape and bodily harm by a man she calls Mason. In Oct. 2022, he was formally charged with attempted rape and assault as well as controlling and coercive behaviour, but they were dropped in Feb. 2023 after “the withdrawal of key witnesses.” With massive fan backlash to United’s plan to bring the forward back into the team, he has been loaned to Getafe in Spain’s La Liga and has since fathered a child with Robson.
Kobe Bryant
While the former Lakers superstar is now much-beloved, especially after his tragic death in 2020, that was not the case in the early 2000s. In 2003, Bryant faced sexual assault charges with the alleged victim a 19-year-old hotel worker. He was forced to fly to and from Colorado for court dates during the season with the trial looming large over the Lakers’ playoff run and eventual loss in the NBA Finals. Criminal charges were dropped after the accuser refused to testify and a subsequent civil suit was settled out of court, with Bryant making a public apology and admitting to a sexual encounter he maintained was consensual. Bryant would play 12 more seasons with the Lakers and is considered one of the best guards to ever play.
Mike Tyson
One of the most feared men to ever step inside a boxing ring, Tyson was also dangerous outside of it. In 1991, Tyson was arrested and charged with the rape of an 18-year-old woman in an Indianapolis hotel room. He was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison, but only served three before being released on parole. Tyson returned to the ring and regained two of his championships, before losing to Evander Holyfield and being involved in increasingly bizarre stories outside of the ring. Tyson has toned things down since his retirement from the ring though and remains in the public eye.
Dani Alves
The fullback was a major piece of Barcelona’s championship-winning teams and holds the record as the most decorated man in men’s soccer with 43 career titles. But the Brazilian currently is awaiting trial in Spain over sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged incident at a Barcelona nightclub in late 2022. Alves is accused of assaulting and raping a woman, and while he initially denied even knowing who the woman is, he also has changed his account of events at least five times when interviewed by police over the past year. According to reports, semen that matched Alves’ DNA was collected from samples from inside the complainant’s vagina, on her clothing and in the club’s bathroom. He was released by his Mexican club Pumas shortly after his initial arrest and has been jailed for the past year with his bail requests repeatedly denied. Alves’ trial reportedly is set to begin next week.