(CNN) -- Tiger Woods' personal life went off the rails. Lance Armstrong's sporting image crashed in drugs. Both were sponsored by Nike in multi-million dollar deals. Now Nike is being reminded again that pinning your company reputation on star names is a risky business. This time it's Oscar Pistorius whose life has moved from sports headlines to the news pages to cause headaches at Nike headquarters. Pistorius, known as the 'blade runner,' is the man Nike called a bullet and who is now charged with shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. With Pistorius, Nike had a star able to attract supporters to disabled athletics and who was so fast he could compete against able-bodied runners.Nike carried ad calling Oscar Pistorius a bulletNike has sponsored other stars who have fallen from graceReputation expert says as soon as an athlete harms a brand the link is cutSome brands are looking at evading future fallout by using different language, he says
"It is not the responsibility of _ to be a parent or rescue a person if they break the law. _ rejects the murder allegation "in the strongest terms," Van Zuyl said.