Tiger Woods hits a tee shot on the fifth hole during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
If there’s one valuable nugget one can take away from Forbes Magazine’s Most Powerful Celebrities issue, it’s that controversy doesn’t exactly hurt celebrity appeal.
Lady GaGa, one of the controversial pop stars in music tops the list. More interesting for sports fans, Tiger Woods again topped the list as the most powerful sports celebrity ranking No. 6 of the top 100 celebrities. Controversial sports celebrities LeBron James, of the Miami Heat, ranked No. 10 and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant held steady at No. 14 for the second consecutive year rounding out the sports figures among the top 20.
Tiger Woods’ infamous divorce with with Elin Nordegren due largely to the cheating scandal has had little bearing on his celebrity appeal, though his golf game might be a different story.
Since Forbes Magazine first started the annual Celebrity 100 issue in 1999, Tiger Woods has been the most powerful sports celebrity since 2001. The only athlete to best him is Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan, who ranked No. 1 in 1999 and No. 5 in 2000.
The Celebrity 100 ranking is a measure of entertainment-related earnings, media visibility and social media power by looking at each celebrity’s presence on Facebook and Twitter according to Forbes.
Here’s a look at this year’s most powerful sports celebrities: Tiger Woods No. 6, LeBron James No. 10, Kobe Bryant No. 14, Roger Federer No. 25, David Beckham No. 35, Phil Mickelson No. 36, Cristiano Ronaldo No. 43, Rafael Nadal No. 46, Alex Rodriguez No. 49, Tom Brady No. 55, Dwyane Wade No. 57, Dwight Howard No. 59, Lionel Messi No. 62, Derek Jeter No. 69, Peyton Manning No. 72, Maria Sharapova No. 80, Serena Williams No. 84, No. 86 Venus Williams, Danica Patrick No. 96
Sports celebrities who dropped out of the Celebrity 100 list from 2010: Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Shaquille O’Neal, Manny Pacquiao, Lance Armstrong.
