Pete Rose and John McAfee – Entering the Hall of Shame

Pete Rose has gone down in history as one of the best baseball players of all time. John McAfee, the founder of McAfee Antivirus Software was regarded as a visionary in the computer anti-virus industry. However, both of these individuals will not be remembered for their ‘on the field’ or behind the computer screen accomplishments. Both legacies are tarnished for good thanks to poor personal choices both men made.

Rose was known as “Charlie Hustle” for two reasons. One reason was his on the field work ethic which produced a fabulous career. He boasts three World Series, 17 All Star games, and plenty more honors and awards. He was the leader in hits and at-bats, and was the first person to really start sliding into base bags. He also had an incredible 44-game hitting streak.

Pete Rose; now 71 years old, played professional baseball from 1963 until 1986. His love of the sport caused him to manage a team from 1984 until 1989. It was during his management years that Pete’s poor choices would cause his fans to lose a great deal of respect for him.

Pete apparently liked to gamble. It was during his role as team manager for the Cincinnati Reds that Pete gambled on baseball games. In 1989, he admitted to betting on his team and other teams as well. Because of this, Pete was not allowed to be a part of professional baseball anymore and he lost his chance to earn a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

For years and years Pete denied these claims – actually, he flat out lied about any involvement in baseball gambling. His lying eventually caught up with him and the truth came out. In addition to gambling, Pete was in legal trouble for tax evasion, as he did not report income that he received from horse racing and memorabilia. Worse however, was that he was banned from any involvement in MLB for LIFE.

The issues currently facing John McAfee are eerily similar. McAfee has recently been linked to investigation of drug trafficking in Belize, engaged in an underage sexual relationship with a 17-year old girl, and is wanted for murder. But, this is just recent news of McAfee who during his life has engaged in similar scrupulous behavior that eventually lead him to be ‘shown the door’ for running his own company.

However, his behavior today and in the past does impact the trustworthiness and reliability of the products he developed. McAfee Antivirus and the entire computer software industry is based solely on trust of important consumers. They need to know that the money they spend on a product was created by an individual or team who make solid and ethical lifestyle choices. More important is that they engage this type of social responsibility into every product sold to computer users.

McAfee Antivirus is now under suspicion of its quality simply because of the poor decisions of its founder.

Simply put, both Rose and McAfee’s legacy will forever be tarnished in the eye of the general public. And the on the field and business success achieved by both must be questioned. If somebody is willing to lie about gambling, or engages in drug sales, underage sexual activity and even accused of murder – consumers should be wary of the products and brands they are attached to – or at the least question these individuals integrity and decision making process during a lifetime of poor decision making.