Love is in the arena: when sports and celebrity mix

With Valentine’s Day on Sunday, we’re taking a look at 10 notable sports-celebrity marriages throughout the years. Starting with:

1. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.

After two years of dating, they were married for a mere nine months. But the romance for Joltin’ Joe never ended. He left roses at her gravesite twice a year for decades after she died.

2. David and Victoria Beckham.

You’d think the rich and famous soccer player would be the perfect man to enable Victoria to maintain her posh lifestyle. Actually, she has been the brains behind their 16-year marriage. He’s just the left foot.

3. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen.

The start to their relationship was deflating when it was revealed shortly after they began dating that Bridget Moynahan was pregnant with former boyfriend Tom’s child. But the Patriots quarterback and the supermodel have been married for seven years and have two children of their own.

4. Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones.

The Great One and his actress wife have had by all accounts a great relationship, having been married since 1988. And daughter Paulina is married to golfer Dustin Johnson.

5. Bob Waterfield and Jane Russell.

The late Cleveland and Los Angeles Rams quarterback was married to World War II pin-up model and high school sweetheart Jane Russell for 25 years before they divorced.

6. Dario Franchitti and Ashley Judd.

The actress and Kentucky basketball’s No. 1 fan weren’t a one-and-done. Her marriage to the Italian Indy car driver lasted for 11 years. She says she still adores him. That’s amore.

7. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

So we have two celebrity athletes. The tennis players have been at lovelove since well before their 2001 marriage. He earlier was married for two years to Brooke Shields.

8. Tony Parker and Eva Longoria.

The Texas actress was neither desperate nor a housewife. Neither was the Spurs guard. So the prenup they signed didn’t hurt either financially when they divorced in 2010 after fewer than four years of marriage.

9. Carmelo Anthony and LaLa Vasquez.

The New York Knicks star married the television actress in 2010 in a televised ceremony called “LaLa’s Full Court Wedding.” Doesn’t Melo and LaLa sound like a Saturday morning show on Nickelodeon?

10. Couldn’t bring up the rear without a Kardashian or two.

Washington Wizards forward Kris Humphries was married for seven days to Kim, beating the NBA record of Dennis Rodman’s 10day marriage to Carmen Electra by three days. Former NBA star Lamar Odom remains married to Khloe, although she is or isn’t also seeing James Harden.