Random Athletes Who Are Nerds (27 items)

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  (#1) Mike Tyson

  • 53

  Mike Tyson's nerdom comes in the form of an obsession with pigeons. The heavy-weight champion has been raising the birds since he was a teen.
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  (#2) Tiger Woods

  • 44

  Tiger Woods has admitted to having a nerdy side and that his teammates used to call him "Urkel" when he was in college.
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  (#3) Shaquille O'Neal

  • 47

  In 2013, Shaquille O'Neal called himself "the world's tallest geek." His nerdiness comes from his love of all things technology. His Superman tattoo doesn't help his geeky image, either.
  
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  (#4) Chris Bosh

  • 35

  Chris Bosh is a tech nerd and advocates for everyone in the world to learn code. "I would like to teach kids about coding because the possible applications are fascinating and it’s really quite simple when you think of it," he wrote in a 2013 editorial.
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  (#5) Tim Duncan

  • 43

  Tim Duncan is a big fan of the classic nerd game Dungeons and Dragons. He has also been known to attend Renaissance fairs.
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  (#6) Gilbert Arenas

  • 37

  Gilbert Arenas loves to play video games.
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  (#7) JaVale McGee

  • 31

  JaVale McGee's teammate, Andre Iguodala, outed him as being a nerd for liking to play around with gadgets.
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  (#8) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  • 72

  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's glasses make him an easy target for being called a nerd, but the NBA player is also an avid reader.
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  (#9) Herschel Walker

  • 57

  You may not guess it by looking at him, but Herschel Walker danced with the Fort Worth Ballet in 1988.
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  (#10) George Parros

  • 40

  George Parros likes to do crossword puzzles in his spare time. He says, "I do crosswords on the road and take some heat for that. I hate the New York Times one. USA Today is good for me. The New York Times one, it annoys me because they’ve got 16th century poets and stuff."
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  (#11) Wade Boggs

  • 61

  MLB player Wade Boggs always portrayed himself on the nerdy side when he made TV appearances on Seinfeld, Cheers, and The Simpsons. He must be a geek under the jock exterior.
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  (#12) Andrew Bynum

  • 32

  Andrew Bynum loves engineering. In school, his favorite subject was physics, and he was a member of the chess team.
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  (#13) Dhani Jones

  • 41

  Dhani Jones says, "Just because you wear a bow tie doesn't mean you're a nerd," but his obsession with the fashion accessory begs to differ.
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  (#14) Ryan Bader

  • 36

  Ryan Bader proved that he has nerd-like tendencies when he dressed up like a yellow care bear with his friends.
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  (#15) Joe Flacco

  • 34

  Joe Flacco is a loner nerd. He likes to hang out in his basement so much that his teammates bought him a pinball machine to give him something to do.
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  (#16) Craig Breslow

  • 39

  Craig Breslow is known as one of the smartest players in baseball. Red Sox manager John Farrell said, "Breslow uses words in a normal conversation that I'm not used to."
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  (#17) Robert Griffin III

  • 29

  Robert Griffin III is a superhero nerd. He showed up to accept the Heisman Trophy wearing Superman socks.
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  (#18) Larry Fitzgerald

  • 36

  Larry Fitzgerald is a photography geek. He explains his passion saying, "The only time that has happened is that time, during that lighting. ... Eventually when you look back at that picture, it tells a story – and one only you can tell."
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  (#19) Chris Kaman

  • 37

  Chris Kaman is a car nerd and likes to work on vehicles in his spare time.
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  (#20) Curt Schilling

  • 53

  Curt Schilling is a big time video game nerd. He says, "This is how nerdy we were: we’d literally take a tape recorder and turn it on at one o’clock in the morning while we were playing, and we’d narrate the game into the microphone."
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  (#21) Tim Green

  • 56

  Former NFL player Tim Green showed his inner bookworm after retirement when he started publishing suspense novels.
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  (#22) Calvin Murphy

  • 71

  Calvin Murphy is a national championship-winning baton twirler.
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  (#23) Lance Briggs

  • 39

  Lance Briggs is a comic book nerd. He loves comics so much that he created his own "seraph" in 2011.
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  (#24) Chris Kluwe

  • 38

  Chris Kluwe is a nerd for World of Warcraft.
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  (#25) Todd Marinovich

  • 50

  Todd Marinovich is an art nerd. After retiring from football, he started painting sports-related murals.
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  (#26) Chad Brown

  • 49

  Chad Brown used his nerdy obsession with math to excel at the game of poker.
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  (#27) Noah Syndergaard

  • age 23

  Syndergaard gained the nickname "Thor" for his weightlifting enthusiasm, especially after he posted a picture of himself working out while dressed as the superhero. He also guest appeared on Game of Thrones and is a fan of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.

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