Scandals are part of each year's news cycle and 2015 was no exception.
1. Deflategate dogs NFL
Did he or didn't he? New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended by the NFL for four games for allegedly deflating balls before a January playoff game against the Colts. He went to court and won, meaning he did not miss a game. He was eligible to play in the season opening kickoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 10. The NFL is still appealing that ruling.
2. 'I identify as black'
Rachel Dolezal, the former leader of the Spokane, Wash., NAACP chapter, gained nation attention in June when her parents announced she was born Caucasian, and had been deceiving people into thinking she was African American since 2004. Dolezal later explained that she identified with the African American ethnicity. Dolezal eventually stepped down from her leadership position at the NAACP on June 15.
"I was drawing self portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon," she told the Today show. She said she "takes exception" to claims she deceived people into thinking she was black or mixed race because it aided her professional growth.
"I identify as black," she said. Dolezal said her hair style and light brown skin — "I certainly don't stay out of the sun" — prompted people to assume she was black. She acknowledged that she didn't discourage the assumption.
3. Misstatements 'clearly ego driven'
Brian Williams, the former NBC Nightly News anchor, was suspended in Februaryafter he was challenged on social media about a statement he made about his reporting tour in Iraq in 2003.
Williams said he was on a helicopter that had been hit by enemy fire and forced down. Veterans from the convoy challenged Williams' story on Facebook.
Williams eventually recanted the story on air after Stars and Stripes published a story about the online exchange.
In his first public comments since losing his NBC Nightly News anchor chair in a major demotion, Williams apologized for telling inaccurate stories about his experiences and said such misstatements were "clearly ego driven."
"I am sorry," a subdued Williams told Today's Matt Lauer in interviews carried out over two days in June. "I am sorry for what happened. I am different as a result and I expect to be held to a different standard."
He later returned to sister network MSNBC, taking a big pay cut, as a live breaking news anchor. Williams was involved in the cable network's coverage of Pope Francis'visit to the U.S.
4. From pitchman to 'pariah'
Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for possession and distribution of child pornography, and traveling across state lines for commercial sex with a minor.
Fogle's secret life began to unravel April 29, when police arrested Russell C. Taylor, former head of The Jared Foundation, on preliminary child pornography charges.
But Fogle's interest in sex with minors went back to at least 2007, a year before Taylor became head of the foundation. Fogle frequented online sites with ads for escorts or erotic services. He often fed his desire during business trips, trying to arrange his illicit encounters around his schedule promoting Subway and his foundation.
Fogle's release date from prison is listed as July 11, 2029. Federal prisoners must complete at least 85 percent of their sentence.
His appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is due Jan. 25.
5. Institutional corruption in soccer world
FIFA president Sepp Blatter was forced to step down and more than a dozen top soccer officials all over the world were arrested in a corruption scandal.
The outgoing FIFA's president legacy will always be tarnished, rightfully so, by the institutional corruption that flourished under his watch.
Even if he's innocent of the charges against him — Blatter has been banned from the game for eight years after allegedly funneling an illicit payment to his then-ally, Michel Platini — FIFA has turned too rotten for him to be remembered as anything other than the architect of this disaster.
6. Trouble at Love Ranch
Basketball star Lamar Odom's life took a strange turn as he was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel called Love Ranch after a serious binge.
Odom took cocaine and as many as 10 sexual-performance supplement pills leading up to his hospitalization in Las Vegas, according to a dramatic 911 call released in October by the Nye County Sheriff's Department in Nevada.
He's been recuperating in a Los Angeles hospital since with estranged wife Khloe Kardashian at his side.
Odom last played in the NBA in 2013 and was waived by the New York Knicks in July 2014. He was part of the Los Angeles Lakers championship-winning teams in 2009 and 2010.
"Lamar Odom" was the number one searched term on Google in 2015.
7. Counting the Duggar drama
Josh Duggar could not avoid scandalous bombshells in 2015. He admitted to molesting five girls, including two of his sisters, as a teenager.
He was also exposed during the AshleyMadison.com hack and sued by a porn star sexual assault.
"While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife," Duggar said in a self-assessment on the family website.
Duggar checked into a faith-based rehab in August after admitting to hypocrisy, infidelity and being a porn addict.
8. Symbol of drug price hikes
Martin Shkreli, former hedge fund manager and controversial pharmaceutical company CEO, is facing charges after prosecutors say he lied to investors, used assets from a drug company to pay off investors in a hedge fund and tried to cover up what he was doing.
Shkreli gained public prominence earlier this year when he and Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim by more than 5,000%, from $13.50 per pill to $750. The drug is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that afflicts patients with weakened immune systems, including pregnant women and AIDS sufferers.
The price hike drew criticism from the medical industry, became a talking point in the 2016 presidential campaign and prompted the Senate Special Committee on Aging to include Turing in the panel's ongoing investigation of drug pricing and distribution.
"I am confident I will prevail. The allegations against me are baseless and without merit," Shkreli tweeted in December.
9. 'Life is short. Have an affair.'
Hackers who stole customer information from the cheating site AshleyMadison.com dumped nearly 10 gigabytes of data to the dark web this year, fulfilling a threat to release sensitive information including account details, log-ins and credit card details, if Avid Life Media, the owner of the website didn't take Ashley Madison.com offline permanently.
In August, the group who hacked into Ashley Madison, doubled down, posting what appears to be another 20 gigabytes of data — including the CEO's emails.
Analysis of the email addresses in the databases show that most come from webmail providers, said Robert Hansen, vice president of WhiteHat Labs at the computer security company WhiteHat Security, which independently studied the data.
The top most-used domains were Gmail.com, with 8.7 million, Yahoo.com with 6.6 million, Hotmail with 6.2 million and Aol.com with 1.2 million, Hansen found.
Surprisingly, there were at least 13,000 addresses from military and government emails with .mil and .gov addresses.
10. Bill Cosby's sexual assault allegations
The total number of women who have publicly claimed Bill Cosby drugged and/or sexually assaulted them in decades past sits at nearly 50.
Cosby has denied wrongdoing, and most of the accusations are too old to pursue in criminal court.
Temple University faculty voted to condemn Bill Cosby over the sexual assault allegations he faces.
They also are urging the university to rescind the longtime Temple supporter's honorary degree. Cosby stepped down as a trustee last year. Other universities,including Tufts, Brown and LeHigh, have rescinded honorary degrees given to Cosby.
Cosby is claiming defamation in a lawsuit filed in December against seven of his accusers.
A half-dozen lawsuits from some of his accusers have been filed against him, charging assault or defamation. Both he and wife Camille Cosby are scheduled to be deposed in one of those defamation suits in January and February in federal court in Springfield, Mass., where the suit was filed and near where the Cosbys live.
