Tuesday, August 19, 2008

10 Greatest Athletes - Jim Brown, Jim Thorpe, Bo Jackson, Babe Ruth, Wilt Chamberlain, etc.

With Michael Phelps' amazing feat of 8 Olympic gold medals, ESPN's Buster Olney wrote in his blog about who he thought were the 10 greatest male athletes...he listed in no particular order:
Babe Ruth, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Wilt Chamberlain, Wayne Gretzky, Pele, Willie Mays, Lawrence Taylor, and (tie) Michael Jordan and Emil Zatopek.

My top 10 (in no particular order) varies a bit...to me, a great athlete does not mean someone who dominates their sport, such as Tiger Woods...to me, a great athlete is someone who can do various sports extremely well or various aspects of their sport very well...below are my top 10...

- Deion Sanders - Sanders was the best lockdown cornerback in the NFL...he was also a good baseball player who had super speed...he was not a baseball All-Star, but he was good enough...

- Bob Hayes (right) - Bullet Bob won the Olympic gold in the 100 meters at the 1964 games...afterward, he played wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys...he was a good receiver...Hayes is the only person so far to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring...

- Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis - these two are lumped together because they both won 4 Olympic gold medals at one Olympics in four different track and field events...they were not only fast, but they were also the best at the field event of long jump...

- Wilt Chamberlain - Wilt was a badass on the basketball and volleyball court...he did not let his height become a hindrance...

- Bo Jackson - Bo was not a Hall of Famer at baseball, but he was mighty good though...he had a terrific arm...and in football, he was a freakin' BEAST!!!...if not for the hip injury, he would have been enshrined in Canton, Ohio...

- Jackie Robinson - besides all the crap he had to deal with at baseball, Robinson was also a very good football player at UCLA...he was UCLA's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track...

- Jim Thorpe - Thorpe won the decathlon at the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm...he was also a rugged football player who played almost any position...former president Dwight Eisenhower played against Thorpe and had this to say after he injured his knee while trying to tackle Thorpe..."Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes b
ack to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw."...

- Jim Brown (left) - Jim Brown was the best running back ever...but most people don't realize he may have also been the best collegiate lacrosse player ever too...

- Michael Phelps - Phelps dominated his sport of swimming...but unlike Tiger Woods in golf, Phelps won at varying distances in the pool...and he won his 8 gold medals all within a week's time...often times, having to swim different lengths during the course of a day...

- Babe Ruth - The Babe was simply a Freak of Nature...imagine Alex Rodriguez being able to pitch like Jim Palmer...or imagine Greg Maddux being able to hit like Albert Pujols...The Babe would have been a Hall of Fame pitcher if he stayed on the mound...and he would have easily hit over 900 homers if he was not a pitcher early in his career...

Who are your Top 10 Greatest Male Athletes?......

Check out this 3 minute clip of Bo Jackson and his great plays when he strapped on the helmet of the Silver and Black...



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