By dictionary definition, a power couple consists of two people who are each successful in their own right. Thanks to all the actors, actresses and models, there has been a lot of popularity in the long list of sports couples. There are plenty of couples who match this set of criteria, but there are also couples who are rather obscure or not known about at all. Why's that? The couple isn't an example of the norm in ways such as having a large age gap between them or work in immensely different fields.
Sure, there are a million feasible reasons why an athlete would end up dating and possibly marrying a celebrity. It's most likely helpful when both parties know what it feels like to be in the public eye. While it's not possible to completely avoid the limelight, there are couples who seemingly come from two different worlds. There's nothing wrong with being offbeat, but it's certainly an interesting topic to discuss in a list of obscure sports couples who aren't following the social norms that were basically mentioned in a society ever since human beings existed in this world.
We don't need to be so stereotypical. Whether it's a feisty older woman or an All-Star with a businessperson, these couples show us that opposites attract, at least for a brief amount of time and maybe even more than that.
With that being said, there are sports couples that are just plain weird. Here are 15 weird sports couples you never knew dated.
15 Mark Sanchez And Eliza Kruger
Imagine if a cute blonde sneaked up to a handsome quarterback for a drink and an exchange of phone numbers at a bar on New Year's Eve in New York City. Who would be unable to resist a girl like that?
Apparently, Mark Sanchez—who was a New York Jets quarterback at the time—couldn't resist Eliza Kruger, who turned out to be 17 years old. Eliza is the daughter of hedge funder Konrad "Chip" Kruger. While their dinner date and hookup were consensual as the age of consent in New York is 17, their brief fling made tons of headlines on the internet due to the age gap. In 2011, Sanchez was 25 and Kruger was 17. Obviously, it was one of the more inappropriate relationships we could remember.
14 Alex Rodriguez And Anne Wojcicki
Former New York Yankees star Alex "A-rod" Rodriguez is currently dating pop sensation Jennifer Lopez, but did you know that he dated Sergey Brin's ex-wife Anne Wojcicki? Probably not.
In case you didn't know, Brin is a co-founder of Google and Wojcicki is an entrepreneur who is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a personal genetics company called 23andMe. They were the typical Silicon Valley power couple until Brin cheated on Wojcicki with a marketing director at Google Glass.
After her divorce was finalized, Wojcicki moved on to A-Rod, who she dated for less than a year before calling it quits. Anne's mother, Esther, told the New York Daily News, "I liked A-Rod, he was a very nice man...He came from a Hispanic family. We liked them, they were very sweet. He seemed to be genuinely in love with Anne. But I right away figured out this was a mismatch. He had no academic background. We couldn't have an intellectual conversation about anything." Ouch!
13 Mark McGwire And Stephanie Slemer
Mark "Big Mac" McGwire's wife, Stephanie Slemer, looks like a model, but she's not.
McGwire was one of the best players in baseball with two World Series championships and 12 All-Star titles along with the most numbers hit in a single season with 70. McGwire's first marriage was to a batgirl, Kathy Hughes, whom he had son with. The former couple divorced in 1990.
McGwire retired at the age 39 and tied the knot with Slemer, who was a 24-year-old TAP Pharmaceuticals sales representative at the time. The current couple have five kids: a trio of female triplets as well as two sons. McGwire's past steroid use obviously didn't have an effect on his reproductive organs, but maybe Slemer had an extensive knowledge of medications and helped her husband figure out what treatments were right for him.
12 Dennis Rodman & Madonna
Madonna sure got around with former Chicago Bulls players. There was of course the story of her dating Scottie Pippen only for Pippen's teammate Michael Jordan to offer himself to her, saying he was better equipped than his teammate Pippen. Madonna never took MJ up on his offer, but she did pursue Dennis Rodman a little while later. Rodman has had many publicized relationships including a brief marriage to Carmen Electra, but not many remember he and Madonna being an item.
Rodman has been pretty vocal about his time with Madonna, insisting that she wanted to have a baby with him.
"She wanted to get pregnant really bad," he wrote in his book Bad As I Wanna Be. "She would send me faxes that said, 'I really want to be with you, I miss you.'
11 Dwight Howard And Debbie
Dwight Howard is 32 years old, but he isn't really showing signs of slowing down on the court anytime soon. He currently plays for the Charlotte Hornets as a center.
Howard also caught some grief when Debbie, a 16-year-old girl, put the 30-year-old player on full blast, claiming that she was his side chick. Debbie shared photos of the pair's text conversations as well as a controversial photo of him spending time with her in a hotel room. Debbie never brought up bedroom details, but she did say that Howard called her his princess and said that he broke her heart.
There wasn't any legal action taken towards this alleged relationship, but it's cringe-worthy, to say the least.
10 Wladimir Klitschko and Hayden Panettiere
Now, you might've already heard of this couple as Wladimir Klitschko is a former Ukrainian boxer who has competed from 1996 to 2017 and Hayden Panettiere is an actress who is best known for her appearances on NBC's Heroes as well as ABC and CMT's Nashville.
Not only does the couple have a huge age gap (Klitschko is 13 years Panettiere's senior), they also have a major height difference (Klitschko is 6'6" and Panettiere is 5'0"). And, in this picture, Panettiere looks like the daughter of Klitschko with the way she's dressed. They're pretty much comically mismatched. It definitely is one of the bigger mismatches as far as sports couples go, but by all accounts they seem to be happy and that's all that matters.
9 John Daly And Anna Cladakis
John Daly is a golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is best known for his driving distance off the tee, his obscure fashion sense and unstable personal life. He has been married five times before popping the question to his longtime girlfriend, Anna Cladakis, a promotional director for Hooters.
Cladakis had been credentialed for helping Daly turn his life around, but even with the reported makeover, the couple just looks so weird. Also, Daly looks like a feminine version of President Donald Trump in this particular picture.
In any event, Daly proposed to his girlfriend back in 2014 after six years of them being together. While the proposal took place, there hasn't been any news of a possible wedding date between the two. We don't know what the holdup is.
8 Tim Tebow And Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is one of the more accomplished singers on the music scene today. Yes, she's a very polarizing individual, but you can't argue that she moves the needle. Tim Tebow is largely out of the spotlight today, but he's still trying to succeed in sports, now plying his trade as a baseball player. Back in 2012, Tebow was coming off a miracle season with the Broncos, where he led them to the playoffs, only to be traded to the Jets once the Broncos landed Peyton Manning. As we know, Tebow has a vow to save himself until marriage, and he was probably hoping Taylor Swift felt the same way when they went on a date back in 2012. They insisted it was a friendly dinner, but rumors have circled that they were dating, albeit not in a relationship.
7 Glen Rice And Sarah Palin
This is certainly a blast from the past, as this rumored encounter took place in the late 80s when Glen Rice was still making a name for himself in basketball. As we know, Rice wound up being a solid NBA player and Sarah Palin turned out to be one of the more prominent politicians in the United States, even running as John McCain's vice president candidate back in 2008. The rumor was shared in more detail in the book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin written by Joe McGinniss. The book even went so far as to say that Palin even partied with Rice '80s style' back when the use of certain 'white powder' substances were the popular choice of those looking to party. Palin wasn't really in the public eye back then, and there isn't much to prove the rumor, but if true, it sure is one for the record books.
6 Notre Dame Kid Hits The Jackpot
Ah, what a great segue from Sarah Palin to a woman that played her in an infamous flick, Lisa Ann. Ann has never been shy in saying she prefers dating athletes, ranging from NFL to NBA and even some NHL players, but on this occasion, she took her talents to the NCAA. Back in 2014, Ann was dating Notre Dame wide receiver Justin Brent, who was 19 years old at the time. They were spotted together at several basketball games and weren't shy about sharing their relationship. Ann defended her choice to date the much younger Brent, tweetign: "I am a woman NOT held back by my age, lucky for me, because the writers seem to make me out to be a dinosaur. 42 is NOT old, It is amazing!
Unfortunately, Brent would call off the relationship with Ann, moving on to a model.
5 Dwyane Wade And Aja Metoyer
After divorcing his high sweetheart Siohvaughn Funches and before marrying actress Gabrielle Union, NBA shooting guard Dwyane Wade had a "break baby" with his longtime friend Aja Metoyer.
Metoyer got her big break as a cast member of VH1's Basketball Wives following the birth of her son Xavier. But that's not the weird thing about the couple's short-lived relationship. The question is why would Wade knock someone up and then reunite with Union? Sounds like Wade just likes to procreate out of the blue.
Last year Metoyer denied that her son was a "break baby" writing in her personal blog:
“I think that a little bit of mathematics needs to be done. I’ve known the person ten years,” Aja explained. “My son is not a break baby. He’s almost four. Do the math.”
4 Paul George And Daniela Rajic
Maybe they'll last forever. The second time might be the charm for NBA star forward Paul George and his girlfriend, Daniela Rajic, a former pole dancer who has worked at Tootsie's in Miami, Florida.
The couple briefly dated in 2013 when Rajic was working as a dancer at Tootsie's. They had a daughter named Olivia on May 1, 2013. George was accused of paying Rajic for an abortion and slapped each other with child custody lawsuits, but the pair eventually came to an agreement in November 2014 to co-parent Olivia.
Fast forward three years later, where it seems like the couple mended things entirely. Rajic is now George's girlfriend and pregnant with their second child. Hopefully, they'll stay in love this time around.
3 Manti Te'o And Lennay Kekua/Ronaiah Tuiasosopo
Manti Te'o was just a linebacker from the University of Notre Dame before his name was dropped on every media outlet you could imagine. Starting in 2008, Te'o was a victim of a cat-fishing scandal as he began an online relationship with a Stanford University student named Lennay Kekua, who was hurt in a car accident and was later diagnosed with leukemia. This all happened around the same time in which Te'o's cousin Jazmie was also diagnosed with leukemia and then his grandmother passed away.
Turns out, Kekua was actually played by a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who was in love with Te'o at the time. Tuiasosopo told ESPN, "I pretty much had this escape of Lennay and this was where my heart had pretty much invested, not just time, but all of my energy went into this. "
Fortunately, Te'o made a nice comeback with an Instagram model named Jovi Nicole. While not much is known about Nicole, we can confirm that she's real and attractive.
2 Tiger Woods And Theresa Rogers
It has been alleged that Theresa Rogers was Tiger Woods' 13th mistress. But she isn't just any mistress, she was one of his oldest mistresses. According to Mirror Online, she's believed to be in her 40s.
Although their age difference wasn't that far-fetched, Rogers reportedly hooked up with Woods before he married Swedish model Elin Nordegren in 2004. Woods was 29 and Rogers was around 39.
Rogers most likely thought that she could tame a wild Woods, but she was unable to do so. Woods went on to get arrested for a DUI and is desperately trying to mount a comeback in professional golf. Let's hope he'll continue to turn his life in the right direction. He seems to have a stable girlfriend now in Erica Herman.
1 Jarret Stoll And Rachel Hunter
Wedding bells rang when former NHL player Jarret Stoll walked down the aisle with his sportscaster wife Erin Andrews and the entire audience was jubilant. Okay, the previous sentence's sequence could be the other way around nowadays as Andrews has more money than Stoll; but you know what we meant.
Anyways, Stoll seems to have a thing for older women as Andrews is four years older than him; but his ex-fiancee (yes, ex-fiancee) actress and model Rachel Hunter was a whopping 13 years older than him! The couple became engaged in 2008 in her native New Zealand and they planned a wedding scheduled for 2009, but Stoll unexpectedly called off the upcoming nuptials just seven weeks before the big day. Stoll left Hunter devastated and heartbroken as he never told her the exact reason why he bailed out on her.
Perhaps Stoll simply wasn't ready to be a stepfather to Hunter's two children yet.
