Lance Armstrong, Manti Te'o: Most Disliked Athletes in America No. 1 Spot [FULL LIST]
Cyclist Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o came in at No. 1 on the list of The 10 Most Disliked Athletes in America, part of a Forbes survey revealed on Tuesday.
Conducted by Nielsen/E-Poll, the poll showed that the two athletes appealed to only 15 percent of the public. The reason for the numbers may be explained by the scandals both stars were involved in recently.
Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey in a live televised interview, which aired in January, that he used performance enhancement drugs throughout his cyclist career in which he won seven Tour de France titles. For years he denied the allegations against him and following his public admittance, a criminal investigation was launched to learn more about Armstrong's association to crimes having to do with drug distribution, fraud and conspiracy.
Te'o, a Notre Dame football player, was involved in a girlfriend hoax scandal. He said the woman he loved, named Lennay Kekua, was diagnosed with leukemia and died in September of 2012. He detailed their relationship-how they met, that they would talk on the phone late nights and that he sent flowers to her funeral - only for a report to come out in January saying Kekua was not real. There were no Social Security records of her death, no obituary or funeral announcement in the records and no documents proving that she attended the school Te'o said she did. The photos even used by news outlets reporting on the woman's alleged death were ones of an alive California woman, shocked to see her image associated with a dead woman.
Tiger Woods was third (19 percent appeal rating) in the Most Disliked poll, followed by Jay Cutler (21 percent ) and Metta World Peace (21 percent). Michael Vick (23 percent), last year's most disliked athlete, was No. 7, right behind Alex Rodriguez (22 percent). Tony Romo and Kobe Bryant also made the list.
