Every now and then, Survivor casts someone known—whether liked or not…—to add to the intrigue of the season’s players. Over the years we’ve seen prominent faces like Mike White, Lisa Whelchel, Jimmy Johnson, Brad Culpepper, and Jon Lovett to name a few. But one of the most controversial “celebrities” to ever play was no doubt John Rocker.
John and his, then, girlfriend Julie McGee joined the cast of the second Blood vs. Water season, Survivor: San Juan del Sur back in 2014. Before that, John was known for being a relief pitcher on the Atlanta Braves who essentially ended his career after he offended basically every group of people possible in a 1999 Sports Illustrated interview. And I’m not exaggerating…
After the interview was released, the MLB forced him to apologize, but no one saw any sincerity in it. The league also issued fines, suspension, and mandatory psychiatric counseling. But in the end, he couldn’t come back from it and his career ended when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays released him in 2003.
And then I guess he started applying for Survivor in an attempt to prove to everyone that he wasn’t that guy anymore. About ten years later, he finally made it for the loved one season, but it did not go the way he planned.
In a recently resurfaced pre-game interview, he shared two goals he had for the game. 1.) Don’t embarrass anyone when he destroys them in physical challenges and 2.) don’t get voted out first. He also expressed that he’s dealt with so many different types of personalities in his life that working with all these new faces on Survivor won’t be difficult.
Well, the joke was on him…
While most players weren’t aware of him as anyone other than another castaway on their season, his tribe mate Wes Nale recognized him almost immediately, as did Wes’s father Keith Nale and Keith’s tribe mate Jeremy Collins. Jeremy shared this information with his day 1 ally Natalie Anderson.
John’s tribe, Coyopa, started on a losing streak and the first two people to go were Natalie’s sister Nadiya Anderson, and Jeremy’s wife Val Collins. After the third immunity challenge of the season, Natalie was fed up with the Coyopa tribe getting rid of strong players and called them out after she helped win immunity for her tribe.
Of course, the second she started talking, John made sarcastic hand gestures and called her “mouth,” shooing her away. That was the last straw and she started aiming her insults directly at John, calling him a bad sportsman and telling the tribe to stop “following a racist.” She starts yelling at Coyopa to vote him out and despite Dale Wentworth and Alec Christy telling him to ignore her, and Julie defending him from the opposite tribe, John couldn’t control himself when he yelled back, “If you were a man, I’d knock your teeth out.”
Natalie, a physical therapy student and CrossFit coach from New Jersey, wasn’t shaken in the least, telling him to knock her out and how she isn’t scared of him. And John continued to be affected by it, actively negatively which affected his entire tribe.
Later that night, at Tribal Council, he was unanimously voted out with an immunity idol in his pocket. But once he was gone, things only got worse for Julie who felt like a secondary target to John’s antics. Though her tribe only got on her for being lazy around camp and hiding food—not anything to do with John—she couldn’t take it anymore and quit on day 18.
And despite the fact that they’d been dating for three years prior to their appearance on the show, shortly after the season finale, the two were cited as officially over as John was posting pictures with a new partner.
There are definitely other athletes who are not remembered super fondly based on their attitudes while playing Survivor—Scot Pollard in Survivor: Kaoh Rong definitely comes to mind…—but John Rocker definitely takes the cake as one of the worst sports in Survivor history despite literally being a “sportsman” in real life.
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