and you raise some interesting points. First of all I dont think you can really judge which sports have the best athletes, as each sport requires the competetor to do different things. For example while you list the NFL and NBA as possible homes for the best athletes, what about some of the Japenese and Chinese martial artists? Sure they might not be great if they played football, but in a fight they would probably win. And European soccer players might be the most skillful athletes in the world, but they cant slam dunk or tackle a running back. So how do you determine what constitutes the best? I dont think you can.

Athletes continuing to get better is another interesting discussion. Another example would be track sprinting. World records keep getting broken, but eventually the runners have to stop getting faster. (For example no one is going to run a sub 1second 100m). I think the same can be said for the NFL. Eventually players are going to stop getting bigger and faster.

Once again nice write up.

I like Andersklasen’s ending question:

Too much of a good thing, or will athletes never stop getting better?

Will there be a point where more and more steroids, etc, are untraceable to develop better athletes? What happens then?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many QBs getting beat up as badly as they have been, the past few years. With all the rules set to protect them, they still take a beating and end up injured and out of the game.

Yes, I think athletes have gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. Better sports medicine, better training regimes, better drugs (sports drinks and mixes designed to maximize muscle development), more determined players (the carrot has gotten to be awfully juicy).

Anyone else remember what happened in Super Bowl XI, when Sammy White went across the middle and was absolutely massacred between a perfectly timed dual hit by Jack Tatum and George Atkinson (the Assassins)? Caught between the hammer and the anvil, White’s helmet popped off his head and went flying; watching it, I wasn’t sure whether that helmet still had the head in it or not. Those two bastards had a history of hanging back to set up a WR so they could nail him like that, and White was the perfect victim.

But Sammy White came back and continued to play.

Would he have been able to do that in today’s NFL? If a pair of ‘Assassins’ with today’s level of skill, speed, and body mass, pulled that stunt, I suspect the WR caught in the middle might not survive.

because each sport requires it’s own unique ability to be successful

It takes a special, athletic skill set to be able to withstand what amounts 12 a dozen or more carwrecks every Sunday for six months out of the year.

It also requires a uniques skill set to skate on ice and have the hand-eye coordination to manipilate a frozen piece of rubber.

Just because a person is naturally athletic, or even freakishly athletic, doesn’t mean they can be successful in a certain sport, as you pointed out.

But the most difficult skillset is trying to hit a baseball from 60.5 feet away that’s moving at 90+ mph. Or taking that baseball and making it curve a foot. A hitter that fails 70% of the time is considered an elite batsman.

differing levels of athleticism although quick feet are a must at any position in the NFL. One reason times in the 40 can be deceiving vis-a-vis football ability is that generally only quick bursts are needed, not a flat out sprint. The thing that made Deion Sanders such a force at corner was his closing burst not his outright sprinter’s speed although that was considerable.

QB, of course, is the most difficult position to evaluate in the draft for a number of reasons. One, most college defenses are pretty vanilla. Two, with the exception of a few programs like USC the passing offenses are likewise primitive compared to the NFL. Yes, Ryan and Flacco had good years but they weren’t asked to do a whole lot and when they were both faltered badly in the playoffs.

Here are their results for the toughest sports. Of course all of this is very debatable, but I think they did a pretty good job at ranking sports in degree of difficulty.

One of my favorite arguments is when old-timers say things like “Jim Brown or Wilt Chamberlain could still dominate in today’s league.” No way. Not a chance. Although they were undoubtedly elite athletes of their time, just one look at old game films to see that every single person on the field, court, or ice is bigger and faster than the previous generation.

Andrew makes an excellent point—how big and fast is too big and fast? The advancement of athletic performance has increased almost exponentially due to specialization and advancements in technology, supplements, and diet. Will it finally hit a plateau, or will it keep going until someone’s body literally gives out on the field?