Jackie Chan is a martial artist. I expect Lee or Norris would beat him in a fight but Chan is a black belt in at least one discipline so he is no slouch.
It seems to me the ability to perform athletically without getting hurt is intrinsically part of the concept of “athleticism.”
Someone made a case for Herschel Walker a few posts back – I don’t know if he’s in the conversation of the best athlete but he was definitely a phenomenal athlete regardless.
The ability to perform without getting injured is more about luck than athleticism. Especially for a running back.
Particularly in Jackson’s case – his hip injury was a truly freak thing, from an awkward angle on a tackle, and, IMO, had nothing to do with his athleticism (or any perceived lack thereof).
Video of the play on which he was injured, with some discussion from Jackson and others:
Also, I think it says something for Jackson’s athleticism that in 1991, he hit 3 home runs for the White Sox, while playing with a degenerative hip condition that would require replacement of his hip joint a few months later. And, then, after taking 1992 off to rehabilitate, he hit 29 home runs in '93 and '94, while playing on an artificial hip!
Other guys have come back from pretty serious injuries.
Bo Jackson was an impressively strong and fast baseball player but was not a great one; he was certainly not one of the 2000 best players in major league history. That he played both professional football and baseball is itself wildly impressive, of course, but so did Deion Sanders.
The votes for Jackson are basically because he was quite famous, wildly out of proportion to his actual accomplishments. In terms of his combination of strength, agility and speed he is easily matched by any number of decathletes we’ve never heard of.
Haven’t seen any women on this list. I’d nominate Babe Didrikson Zaharias, although her personality made her a person most people would NOT want their daughters to emulate.
She was mentioned in the first response.
The two most accepted measures for a human male are running prowess and physical strength. So it’s either Bolt or Alexeyev.
That may be so but there’s a difference between a running back trying to regain form from a hip injury and QB trying to recover from a broken leg or even back surgery. There’s a reason why running backs typically have among the shortest-lived careers in the NFL and why backs such as Adrian Peterson, who have been consistently good over a decade, are extremely rare. A running back has to use his legs to accelerate and run over people. A hip injury or an injured ACL takes a great running back and makes him just another running back.
He absolutely was among one of the most talented running backs of his time; he was just never completely healthy. But if you look at yards per rush, it’s right up there with the all-time greats. He had 5.4 yards per carry, which would put him at 5th best all time in that respect. Some might point out that he didn’t carry the ball that much but then again, he shared the backfield with Marcus freaking Allen. Jackson had a 221-yard game that was a record until Napolean Kaufman broke it about a decade later. I would love to have seen someone with his raw talent play in today’s game where offenses spread the ball around more. As a football player, Jackson was among the most talented to play as any I’ve seen. He’s probably underrated as a football player.
If he’s overrated, it’s as a baseball player. A pretty pedestrian batting average, but with awesome raw power. From 1987 to 1990 he hit 22, 25, 32, and 28 homers respectively. This was before the steroids era of the 1990s and early 2000s, so he was among the league leaders in power stats. He could have hit better for average. Still, overall, it’s an impressive resume. I’d still argue that Deoin Sanders was, overall, better. Certainly better football player. Sanders was probably a better contact hitter and was good on the bases, but lacked Jackson’s power.
I’d agree that he’s probably not among the best of the best, but he was still a phenom.
Bolt isn’t even unambiguously the best runner in the world. He’s certainly the best sprinter, but does that make him a better runner than the best marathoner? And even if we take strength and speed as the only two criteria, what’s Bolt’s clean-and-jerk, or Alexeyev’s 100 meter? If there’s someone out there who’s nearly as fast as Bolt and nearly as strong as Alexeyev, that person would probably qualify as more athletic than either.
Somehow I doubt Vasily Alekseyev was very fast.
I think the “most athletic” title pretty much has to go to someone who has exhibited skill in many disciplines, because there’s no objective way to say that the world’s fastest sprinter is faster than the worst’s best weightlifter is strong. And we’re not even into endurance, agility, or any of that. The world’s best gymnast would surely think Usain Bolt a hapless klutz at gymnastics; why would s/he not qualify as a superior athlete?
Not running but Olympic weightlifting requires speed, power, balance and co-ordination.
Still not necessarily most athletic.
Right, I prefer running backs who didn’t have their legs ripped out of their sockets.
If his claim of sleeping with 20,000 women is even close to valid, he gets my vote…
Did you ever see the young Shaquille O’Neal? A 7’1" monster who could run the floor.
He had limited NFL playing time, but, IIRC, it had little to do with any injuries (until the hip injury ended his football career).
He had committed to playing baseball full-time with the Royals, which was why the Buccaneers (who had drafted him with the first overall pick in 1986) were never able to sign him – they wanted him to only play football. As he never signed with Tampa Bay, Jackson was draft-eligible once again in ‘87, and the Raiders picked him, telling him that they would be willing to let him play baseball, and then join the Raiders after the Royals’ season had ended.
Thus, he did this for all four seasons in which he played for the Raiders, only joining the team in October (which is why he never played in more than 11 games in a season).
I didn’t notice that I was on page 2 until after I made that post. :smack:
At the time (and still now, I think), you could make more $$$ if baseball than in football. You’re right in saying that his early years were not necessarily about injuries. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, sharing the backfield with #32 had something to do with that. And you’re also right in that baseball was probably more of a commitment. The injury factored into his longevity as an NFL back.
Still, 5+ yard per carry is quite impressive. I don’t use that stat to compare him to Jim Brown or Walter Payton as though they had similar accomplishments. But I think it’s fair to say that any guy who can play somewhat regularly over 5 years and average 5+ yds per touch is a damn talented running back.
Shaquille had awesome legs, feet, and body control for someone his size. The only issue was his arms / hands when shooting.
I remember the one time he got into an actual fight with another player on the floor – can’t remember who now. But O’Neal threw a punch with bad intentions and I swear, everyone – Shaq, the intended target, and the NBA – is lucky that thing didn’t land flush on the guy’s jaw. If Shaq had connected, he would have shattered the guy’s face.