Jim Brown
20 posts and not a single mention for Vegard Heggem ?
The most reliable way to determine if a person understands the game of football is to ask their opinion on Barry Sanders. Most people clearly don’t.
oops meant to post this in a different thread. please ignore
I don’t know about the greatest but one of my favorties, Pete Sampras, retired in 2002 after winning a spectacular 5-set final at the US Open against Andre Agassi (I was there!) and stayed retired.* It was the culmination of a career that had seen both grow up in the sport together and the second-highest rated of their matches ever (aside from a 2001 US Open quarterfinal), with both beating several up-and-coming players to get to the final.
From wiki: “During his 15-year career, he won a record 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles in 52 appearances. Sampras finished as World No. 1 on the ATP rankings for six consecutive years, a record for the open era and tied for third all-time. Sampras won the singles title at Wimbledon seven times . . . .”
I believe he was still pretty much at the top of his game and had resigned himself to the fact that he was never going to win the French.
- Although he did play exhibitions and World Team Tennis but not competitively.
Sampras didn’t retire at the top of his game. Before that US Open run - which was great, granted - he hadn’t won a title of any kind in two more than years. He went out a winner, but his skills were definitely diminished.
I never saw Jim Brown, but when **Barry Sanders ** retired, I was stunned that someone so obviously dominant would walk away at the peak of their prowess.
I beg to differ. While his abilities were definitely diminished as his career came to a close (who quits at the absolute top of their game), he was still reaching quarters, semis and finals. In winning his final tournament, he was the only player ever to beat three former USOpen champions to get there, in addition to the upsets mentioned earlier.
You’re probably talking “top of his game,” as in “achieving a certain level with no ups and downs in career or accomplishments.” I’m talking about working yourself back up to winning form to go out in the way he did, added to a lifetime of achievements, accomplishments and records.
We’ll agree to disagree on this one.
Jim Sanders… I mean Barry Brown… errr…
I really can’t pick between the two.
Another one worth mentioning is the soon to be retired Annika Sorenstam, but of course it’s too soon to say if she will stay retired.
Speaking of tennis - I know the thread title has the male pronoun, but Justine Henin retired less than two months ago as the number one player on the WTA. She’d held that title for 61 straight weeks, won the last three French Opens and the 2007 U.S. Open. She reached the finals of all four majors in 2006 (winning one) and at least the semis in all three she played last year (winning two). She won a total of seven Slams and would have had a very good chance to finish the career slam at Wimbledon, but after a quarterfinal showing in Australia in January and a couple of so-so results, she decided to retire in May. She was 25.
His attempt to qualify for the '92 Olympics doesn’t count?
Lance Armstrong. He was still dominating the Tour after 7 straight wins.
Winning margins
1999 7:37
2000 6:02
2001 6:44
2002 7:00
2003 1:01
2004 6:19
2005 4:40
Spitz’s “comeback” was more of a publicity stunt than anything.
You would have to include Lennox Lewis as someone who got out while the getting was good. While nowhere near the fighter that Marciano was, he meets the intent of the OP.
I can’t believe the answer to this would be anything other than Jim Brown. Barry Sanders comes close, but Jim is still the clear winner. He retired after playing football for only eight years, and set every rushing record imaginable, from total yardage to yards per game. Nobody has ever been as dominant.
The three names that initially come to mind are:
Bjorn Borg
Jim Brown
Barry Sanders
I’m not old enough to have seen Jim Brown, but the others definitely had some domination left in them.
I also seem to remember Steffi Graf retiring earlier than she needed to but she was in her decline.
Borg’s comeback sort of ruins his right to this, but if we discount it (it wasn’t much of a comeback) I guess he qualifies.
Borg is a perfect example of a guy who was still an elite superstar, but seemed to know he was on the verge of collapse. He looked terrible in his last loss to McEnroe - I remember it to this day - and his personal life was a big tumultuous.
Interestingly, I can’t think of any baseball players who reached superstar status who voluntarily retired at the top of their game. Sandy Koufax was the greatest pitcher in baseball when he retired; in his last season he went 27-9, completed 27 of his 41 starts, struck out 317 men, had a 1.73 ERA (the lowest of his career) won the Cy Young Award unanimously and almost won the MVP Award too, (which to be honest he really should have won) and led his team to the pennant. That, my friends, is a hell of an exit. But he retired because of impending injury so I don’t think he counts under the OP’s guidelines.
Ooh… good spot 
He was a magician for the couple of seasons he was in the UK… and you’re right, he could have won a World Cup / Champs League / Premiership over the next few years if he’d not left.
Maybe not “his” game, but, Mia Hamm qualifies.
Well, I suppose if you’re conditioned as a baseball player for much of your youth, you can remain in good enough shape to remain one later on (Omar Vizquel springs to mind). Some of these others (boxers, football players), I’d imagine, decide to stop before they get their brain scrambled too badly, which isn’t a huge risk in baseball outside of catching.