The Longest Suspensions In Sports History

Originally, says Sports Illustrated, Muhammad Ali was ruled ineligible to be drafted into the military — not because of his boxing career, but because he had dyslexia. As the conflict dragged on, more and more people found their exemptions disappearing, including Ali.

On April 28, 1967, Ali answered a summons to Houston's Armed Forces Induction Center, and when they called his name — Cassius Clay — three times, he simply refused to step forward. He later explained (via The Washington Post), "My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big, powerful America. And shoot them for what?? ... Just take me to jail." Ali was convicted on June 20 of the same year, handed a $10,000 fine, a five-year prison sentence, and was suspended from boxing. He had known exactly what it would do to his career, too, later writing, "When I fly out of Houston, I'm flying into an exile that will eat up what boxing experts regard as 'the best years of a fighter's life.'"

His suspension would last for around three years, until he finally returned to the ring on October 26, 1970 (against Jerry Quarry). His decision was lauded by Martin Luther King, Jr., and in the end, it all turned out to be for nothing: In 1971, his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.

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