Just in time for Halloween, these are the scariest athletes of all time

Some football players start as early as elementary school. To play the sport for 20-plus years requires dealing with some badasses, but few possessed more badassery than Taylor.

One of his pet peeves was getting cut blocked, which is surely shared by many football players on defense. They’re trying to make a play and then someone they can’t see is taking their legs out from under them. Eric Dickerson and Mark Schlereth have both told stories about the aftermath of Taylor getting cut.

As a rookie, Dickerson did it to Taylor and after he got cussed out he left the field. Dickerson told Cowherd that no one was going to get him back on that field until Taylor had a few plays to cool off. Schlereth acted like he was going to block Taylor but broke away and someone else cut him. A happy Schlereth, following that big play, Taylor “dog cusses” him out to the point where he, the person who didn’t even block him, no longer wanted to run the play.

The man scared people out of using the most effective method to stop him.

That Men’s Journal article where he crosses his arms while holding two of his handguns, is quintessential Harrison. He played football one way, violent and angry. Those are usually necessary traits to be a successful football player, but this Division I recruit got into so much trouble in high school that he had to walk on at Kent State.

His pro career started out slowly as well because he was incorrigible. After a few years, he finally got his mind right and focused his intensity on terrorizing weight-room equipment and opposing offenses. When a team of football players nicknames you Deebo, you are a different level of ferocious.

Harrison brought the pain for the Steelers and a brief stint with the Bengals. He would eventually win defensive player of the year While he’s no longer a player, he can still intimidate with those workout videos that he still posts on Instagram.

A mean guy. There’s no other way to describe Albert Belle. This is a person who once smashed the thermostat in the clubhouse with a bat when someone moved it from where he liked it. In the prime of his career, following consecutive seasons with 45-plus home runs, Cleveland still would not match the money that the Chicago White Sox — a division rival —offered him.

For all Belle brought to the game, there was no telling when the next outburst was coming. Maybe he’ll flatten Fernando Viña in the basepaths, or maybe he’ll demand everyone his locker room area during the World Series. Then when Hannah Storm doesn’t, he’ll yell at her to the point where he gets fined $50,000. Or maybe he’ll even throw a baseball at a Sports Illustrated photographer.

Belle was one of the best hitters in MLB in the 1990s and that made him frightening enough for pitchers. But for everyone else, just seeing him with a bat in his hand is scary.

Here’s a direct quote from Charles Haley. It was used in an America’s Game documentary, produced by NFL Films. It was said at practice to then Cowboys’ quarterback Troy Aikman.

“Troy if I hit yo muthafuckin ass, and rub my dick up on you, and call you my bitch.”

That’s Haley in a moment that appeared to be him joking. He was one of the great defensive players of his era, and also a true loose cannon. His antics are why after two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers he ended up with the Dallas Cowboys. Dan Le Batard once asked Steve Young if Haley had urinated on an assistant coach’s desk. Through laughter, Young responded, “the other end.”

Haley was a playmaker who was a key contributor on championship teams. However, Haley said himself that there could only be one alpha dog on a team. And whether it was Dana Stubblefield, Tim Harris, or whomever, Haley did what he deemed necessary to let them know that the role belonged to him.

The man blew up a bird with a baseball.

Sure, the laws of physics might dictate that if a bird was hit by any major-league-level pitch from that exact distance it would turn into a pile of feathers. It makes sense. A ball — a hard piece of cork — traveling at the speed of a car on the highway, but the size of a rock, probably should turn a bird into a smoke cloud of feathers.

Now try to apply that logic while in the batter’s box against the 6-foot-10 Johnson, and his left arm. looks like he is whipping a baseball directly at your ribs. Assure yourself at that moment that your ribs aren’t about to suffer the same fate as that bird.

Long before the Malice at the Palace terrified America, the Boston Bruins bypassed a plexiglass barrier at Madison Square Garden to treat New York hockey fans to an up close and personal experience with angry NHL players.

In the days before helmets were a requirement, during a physical game, a spectator hit a Bruin in the head with a rolled-up program. That spectator drew blood and also took his stick. The Bruins then took justice into their own hands, led by “Bloody” O’Reilly.

“Bloody,” was a nickname given to him by the press and it was well-earned. He tallied over 200 penalty minutes in five consecutive seasons. That night at Madison Square Garden showed that O’Reilly stayed ready to put his hands on anybody, whether they were wearing pads or not.

All professional fighters are intimidating. They train for months to engage in hand-to-hand combat in their underwear against other human beings. Also, fights are arranged by promoters and managers who are going after fighters’ money as aggressively as opponents go after their heads.

Rarely does a person in that environment stand out as more intimidating than the rest, but Tyson was a boogeyman that had never been seen before or since. It’s not just that he was knocking all of his opponents out, it’s that spectators couldn’t go to the refrigerator for a refreshment during one of his fights or you might miss the reason that you bought the pay-per-view.

Tyson played into the image, playing himself up as the monster of the heavyweight division, but also was just as ferocious in regular life. It was far more than an act, Tyson was one of the most unpredictable in the history of sports. The type of person that this writer once saw as a teenager at a restaurant and the thought never crossed his mind to go and say hello.

“Where I’m from the bullies get bullied”

Z-Bo meant every word of that when he said it to DeMarcus Cousins. He’s another athlete that other pros felt deserved to be nicknamed after one of film’s greatest bullies — Deebo. It didn’t matter that many times a phonebook on its side couldn’t be slid under his feet when he jumped. Z-Bo was a load on the block that would not be moved while on his way to one of his many 20-point double-doubles.

During the Grit-and-Grind era of the Memphis Grizzlies, on a team of tough guys, he was the main player that the opposition did not want to trifle with. The same rules applied off the court as well. Google Zach Randolph, pool cue, to find some interesting allegations.

If you see Charles Oakley across the street, wave and stay on your side. He does not want to talk to you or hear your stories about him body-checking people with the New York Knicks. While retelling the story in which he, and others, claim that he slapped Charles Barkley during the 1998-99 NBA lockout he told Shannon Sharpe, “People come up to me asking me a thousand questions, I ain’t got time to answer a thousand questions. Just say hello. If you know me you already know about me.”

I sure know. I know a person in his 50s that appeared ready to take on the entire security team at Madison Square Garden, they almost looked hesitant that, as a group, they could take on Oak.

The NBA is not the NHL. All enforcers are not cut from the same cloth. Bill Laimbeer would try to hurt you, but the best he had to offer was a dirty act that would get him clocked by Robert Parish. Oak would cave opponents’ chests in with a pick or a forearm for perimeter players driving into the lane. As long as he’s still walking, don’t mess with Oak.