emk211
Legend
Bronze Level
I hate headlines like this, you can not compare generations and come up with the GOAT of any sport...You can only compare apples to apples and yet the media morons and fans think they can somehow say so with such certainty.
They are all wrong.
All you can do is say who was the best apple for each generation.
The pioneers of these sports all laid the foundation for future generations. They are the GOATS.
Each sport has evolved with better equipment, medical care, different rules to offer more safety protection and each generation has a group of players that transcend the other apples in the bunch and then there may be 3 very good apples, but yes, eventually there should be the best tasting apple, according to a consensus of the players, not the media or the fans, because they do not play the game.
They observe and root for their teams. So they are not objective. To be fair, the players are not entirely objective either, but at least their perspective is one of participating in actual games.
Sometimes generations clash over this issue, the games are for the fans, but without the players who would the fans root for, who would the media chastise? Either way who is the GOAT of any sport is for the players to decide, that is why they have the HOF, mostly voted on by players, and select trusted voters, but even they do not get it right all the time, they insist on proclaiming GOAT and there is no way to say that.
Next year a new player somewhere will be proclaimed the greatest, but it will not be of all time because all time has not happened. And still even then it has to be apples to apples for each generation.
I was going to offer my generational Greats, but I will just pick one sport. Football.
There are many greats throughout the history of the NFL but football has been around for a long time, the NFL is fairly recent comparatively. There are some players we have never heard of, seen footage of, witnessed in person that very well could be the Greatest That Has Ever played the game and yet we dismiss them.
Jim Thorpe was according to most accounts I have read, some footage I have seen (very grainy old film) a beast of an athlete, but played football like very few ever did or have since, no face mask, no fancy pads, no indoors games and no artificial turf, no specialists, they played both sides of the ball, no fancy doctors and therapists. They just played. And they did not make money the same, they had only one motivation, to destroy each other in a violent sport, and score more points than the other team in the process.
Picture Dick Butkus as a running back...that was Jim Thorpe. Picture Jim Brown as a linebacker...that was Jim Thorpe. Gale Sayers was awesome and had a career cut short by many knee injuries, if he had medical care like today he would still be running. Jim Brown retired before he was spent, because he wanted to walk when he was older. Emmitt Smith is the one who broke Walter Payton's rushing record and it should be Jim Brown, right?
Actually, Jim Thorpe in todays game would never be stopped, before Jim Brown showed up and Walter would not have the record and Emmitt would not...There are many great players that have come and gone and each has their own version of the GOAT, but they are comparing apples with oranges, since we are doing that I will just say Jim Thorpe is the GOAT, apples or oranges be damned.
They are all wrong.
All you can do is say who was the best apple for each generation.
The pioneers of these sports all laid the foundation for future generations. They are the GOATS.
Each sport has evolved with better equipment, medical care, different rules to offer more safety protection and each generation has a group of players that transcend the other apples in the bunch and then there may be 3 very good apples, but yes, eventually there should be the best tasting apple, according to a consensus of the players, not the media or the fans, because they do not play the game.
They observe and root for their teams. So they are not objective. To be fair, the players are not entirely objective either, but at least their perspective is one of participating in actual games.
Sometimes generations clash over this issue, the games are for the fans, but without the players who would the fans root for, who would the media chastise? Either way who is the GOAT of any sport is for the players to decide, that is why they have the HOF, mostly voted on by players, and select trusted voters, but even they do not get it right all the time, they insist on proclaiming GOAT and there is no way to say that.
Next year a new player somewhere will be proclaimed the greatest, but it will not be of all time because all time has not happened. And still even then it has to be apples to apples for each generation.
I was going to offer my generational Greats, but I will just pick one sport. Football.
There are many greats throughout the history of the NFL but football has been around for a long time, the NFL is fairly recent comparatively. There are some players we have never heard of, seen footage of, witnessed in person that very well could be the Greatest That Has Ever played the game and yet we dismiss them.
Jim Thorpe was according to most accounts I have read, some footage I have seen (very grainy old film) a beast of an athlete, but played football like very few ever did or have since, no face mask, no fancy pads, no indoors games and no artificial turf, no specialists, they played both sides of the ball, no fancy doctors and therapists. They just played. And they did not make money the same, they had only one motivation, to destroy each other in a violent sport, and score more points than the other team in the process.
Picture Dick Butkus as a running back...that was Jim Thorpe. Picture Jim Brown as a linebacker...that was Jim Thorpe. Gale Sayers was awesome and had a career cut short by many knee injuries, if he had medical care like today he would still be running. Jim Brown retired before he was spent, because he wanted to walk when he was older. Emmitt Smith is the one who broke Walter Payton's rushing record and it should be Jim Brown, right?
Actually, Jim Thorpe in todays game would never be stopped, before Jim Brown showed up and Walter would not have the record and Emmitt would not...There are many great players that have come and gone and each has their own version of the GOAT, but they are comparing apples with oranges, since we are doing that I will just say Jim Thorpe is the GOAT, apples or oranges be damned.
