Top 12 Sports Scandals 2012

Sports history is so jam-packed of scandals and 2012 had bounty of nasty, shocking and catastrophic events to boggle the mind, that this gallery would be hundreds of slides long if we tried to include them all. So here are some of the biggest.

Saints Bounty Scandal

The NFL accuses the Saints of putting bounties on Favre, Warner, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Saints quarterback Drew Brees issues a statement denying any knowledge of the bounty program.

Racist Tweets and Neo-Nazi Ties

Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou has been expelled from her country's Olympic team over comments she posted on Twitter which were deemed racist.

Arkansas Coach Affair

When the coach was injured in a motorcycle accident. Petrino initially claimed he was riding alone but it soon emerged that he had been riding with Jessica Dorrell, a 25-year-old employee and former Arkansas volleyball player. Petrino eventually admitted having an affair with Dorrell, who he later hired as a football assistant.

Olympic Badminton Throwing Matches

Four badminton teams were kicked out of the women's doubles at the Summer Olympics for trying to lose on purpose, conduct that a top IOC executive said strikes at the heart of Olympic competition.

Epee Gold Denial

The 25-year-old thought she was through to the final of the women's epee when the clock was reset from zero to one second and the action resumed German Britta Heidemann scored a do-or-die hit given her a place in the final against Ukraine's Yana Shemyakana.

Death of Cowboys Teammate

Brent is being charged with intoxication manslaughter in the death of Brown, The former collegiate teammates at Illinois were exceeding the speed limit in a 2007 Mercedes-Benz S60 driven by Brent when the car hit a curb at about 2:30 a.m. and flipped.

Stolen Golden Moment

Valerie Adams has been awarded the Olympic Gold medal after Nadzeya Ostapchuk was disqualifed for being a drugs cheat.

Canadian Soccer Women Robbed

“We feel like we didn’t lose, we feel like it was taken from us,” said Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, who was later fined and suspended for an incident after the game, although she first helped the team to a bronze medal. “It’s a shame in a game like that, that was so important, the ref decided the result before it started".

Kansas City Chiefs' Murder-Suicide

Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then committed suicide. The tragedy once again brought into question the psychological.

X Gamer Tragedy

B.C.'s Sarah Burke was the golden girl of freestyle skiing, she was only 29 when she had what looked like an innocuous fall in Park City, Utah, during a halfpipe training run. It ruptured an artery that carries blood to the brain and renewed calls to look at safety in the sport.

Tour de France Titles Stripped

Lance Armstrong's life ban, after he was found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs. He was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Penn State Child Sexual Abuse

The scandal centered on the school’s handling of allegations of child sex abuse involving , a former defensive coordinator under Paterno, he Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse involving eight young boys over a 15-year span.