atheles over the last 25 years. here was my list Wayne Gretzy-best athlete ever, most dominate ever Bonds Tiger Clemens Barry Sanders Jordan Rice Marino Elway Mario Lemieux Lance Armstrong Magic Ratrick Roy Sampras Bird that was my top 15. how track and field athletes got on is a joke, same with LT, and emmit. overated IMO a-rod, duncan and shaqs careers arent over to judge yet so0o0o0o
Hmmm...I can't say I agree with you Dawk. To put Michael Jordan at 6 seems a little low for the impact he made. In every sport, a dominant player is referred to as the Michael Jordon of ________. My top 5... Jordan Tiger Gretzky Bonds Armstrong Coming in strong would be Elway and Sanders. Those 5 have made huge impacts on their respective sports. Some may disagree with Armstrong, but when one person can cause an entire continent to become bored with the Tour de France just because they know he's going to win again, you need to give them their just dues.
Thoughts on the list: Espn has provided a list of 34 athletes and 1 race car driver....The list consists of 7 NFL players, 5 NBA players, 5 MLB players, 4 Tennis players, 4 Track athletes, 3 NHLers, 2 Boxers, 1 Golfer, 1 Soccer player, 1 Speed Skater, 1 Cyclist, and 1 driver.... To formulate my list, I 1st eliminate the race car driver, since auto racing is not a sport(unless they run part of the race on foot) so say good bye to Mr Earnhardt.....2nd I reduce the list by eliminating those sports that no one cares about, so good bye Track and Field(sorry FloJo, Carl Lewis, Marion Jones and Jackie Joyner-Kersee), Speed skating(ixna to Eric Heiden), and Womens Soccer(back to Nomar with you Ms. Hamm)....now im down to 28, since bowling gets better rating than the NHL on Espn, I eliminate hockey players too....leaving me with just 25, which has to be put in order.... 1st, the NFL is king so they go in order 1-7: 1a.Rice-So far ahead of the other WRs in numbers its a joke 1b.Marino-same as Rice but in QBs, 10k more yards than anyone, 73 more TDS than anyone, and who did you think I would pick?? 1c.Payton-This is a write in vote that takes the place of Joe Montana on the list and its Walter Payton....maybe the best football play I have ever seen, in terms of complete dominance while playing 4.Elway-closes to Marino in most stats 5.LT-change the NFL forever, the most signifigant defensive player of the last 25 years 6.Barry Sanders-would own the rushing record now if he hadnt pulled a Jim Brown and walked away 7.Emmitt-does own the rushing record, partly because Sanders retired early, but mostly because of the player he was now that all the football players are represented we can get the rest of the Top 25 8.Jordan-too bad he didnt play in the NFL, he coudl have ranked much higher, the best non-football player ever 9.Lance Armstrong-cycling sucks but what hes done is the eqivelent of winning 5 straight Masters titles or Wilmbledons, its an amazing feat 10.Roy Jones Jr-not on the list but Im letting take Mike Tysons place, since Tyson has been such a dissapointment 11.Magic 12.Bonds 13.Ripken 14.Woods 15.Bird 16.Arod 17.Shaq 19.Duncan 20.Clemens 21.Ricky Hendorson 22.McEnroe 23.Sampras 24.Navratolova 25.Venus Williams it wanst easy becuase the list was pretty dumb to begin with but theres the ranking 1-25, although if I could choose any 25 athletes and rank them my list woudl be much different
Gretzky Alltime leader in points Jordan Rice Woods Emitt (rushing record, and how many superbowl rings?) Doesnt matter what they say of his o line, his credentials cant be passed up. Sampras Armstrong (5 tour de france's) Tie rec Arod, way ahead of bonds pace.
a-rod is still young etrain. VF, i put mine in how dominat they were at their sport and position, not impact to the sport. take away rodman, pippen, and the rest jordan only has 4 rings.
I really don't like classifications like this, because it's so hard to not include so many great atheletes. I do have to show y'all the ere of your ways though. What about the man!?! One of the best running backs to ever play the game? WALTER PAYTON
2 issues I have with some of Dawks comments and one with Gogo: 1.To say Emmitt Smith is overrated is ridiculous, and heres why....He is the NFLs all-time leading rusher, yet, if you asked 100 NFL fans to name the top 3 RBs of all time, the majority would not mention him, that is underrated... 2.You said that if you take away Rodman, Pippen and the rest, Jordan would only have 4 titles, so does that mean you think Jordan was so great that he could win 4 titles without help??? Thats pretty damn dominant, I cant think of another player that could win 4 titles without support players, you must really love MJ... 3.I did mention Payton as a tie for the best ever, even though ESPN didnt list him, one reason hes not more prominent on the list is becuase its the greatest North American athletes of the last 25 years, which is only 1979 through the present, a lot of what Payton did came before that time frame
beef i was kidding about jordan, it was sarcasm and same with emmit, people always say hes overrated it was his line, i kinda agree, but i was just poking fun
you know which back is over-rated, and i want to forbid any further comment on subject by beef because i know where he will go with this, is barry sanders. Barry Sanders is the most overrated athelete in the history of professional sports.
Thats crazytalk! Barry Sanders was the man. His moves had moves. He could make an entire defense look silly when he busted one loose!
One thing about Barry's game....he was not conducive to winning...was he spectacular?? yes! Was it exciting to watch?? yes! Could his feast or famine style be counted on to move the chains when it mattered?? no! I loved watching Barry, but I dont think his style won football games.
Barry got caught for a loss more than any other back in the league, every year he was in league, line was bad but not that bad it was him
He did have more runs for a loss, but was still the most exciting player EVER to watch. I also think you're underestimating the ineffectiveness of his o-line. I would have welcomed Barry to KC with open arms ANY year he was in the league. His effectiveness would have been helped if the Lions had given him the ball more often on the goalline. I still say he was the lone bright spot on an abysmal Detroit team.
I realize that he had a lot of 8 and 9 yard runs but, here is the problems with barry. 1) he gets caught for a loss, it puts you in bad situations, like 2 and 12, and 3 and 14, which means either you need a super super qb(marino or manning) who can make things happen all the time or you will punt a lot( which the lions did) 2)he didnt wear down defenses or consistently move ball so you cant run down clock with lead, this was a huge problem they could not rest on the lead. 3) this wasnt barry but lions coaching staff i believe, they did not utilize him enough in passing game. however, 1) he did not fumble, one of the best holding on to the ball 2) on a good game, hard to lose with barry
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BearsFan1)</div><div class='quotemain'>Barry got caught for a loss more than any other back in the league, every year he was in league, line was bad but not that bad it was him</div> Barry did have alot of yards for a loss, with the worst offensive line. However barry played 10 seasons and was 1300 yards shy of the nfl's alltime leading rushing yards 11 seasons it would of been broken. Cant overate that!
I also think that just the threat of Barry made opposing defenses respect the run (even more than they had to) which is the only reason trhey had a passing game at all. With the exception of Herman Moores 2 good years, they never really had a QB or WR worth mentioning. I see your points, but I just don't agree. I don't think he was over-rated. After Montana, though; Barry was my favorite player so I could be a little biased. What do some of the other guys think. Barry - under-rated? or not?
Barry was my all time favorite player. I dont think there was or is a more exciting player to watch than him. Hard to underrate a player of his calibur as he got a lot of hype in his day.
