I was recently discussing Gale Sayers. Many folk consider him one of the all-time greats, but I believe he had only 5 uninjured seasons, then one strong comeback before his career-ending injury.
Made me wonder which pro athletes - in any sports - might be considered to be “all time greats” (however you define that) based on the shortest careers.
Pheidippides?
Bo Jackson’s gotta be on this list, right?
Bo Jackson was certainly a popular athlete in both football and baseball and while not considered the greatest, it is amazing how short his careers really were.
Bo Jackson.
It’s not entirely within the constraints of the OP (but it’s not entirely outside of them either) Stone Cold Steve Austin. Most WWE fans remember him and his feud with the McMahons and all the stuff he did in the attitude era, but his career only lasted about 4-5 years.
The problem with Steve Austin is just that he was not a competitive athlete; he was an entertainer.
Jim Brown’s NFL career was only 9 seasons. Sandy Koufax made it 11 in the majors. Those are both relatively short.
He was popular not because he excelled at either sport; he was good enough to be an All-Star in both, but not enough to make the Hall of Fame in either. But being a successful professional athlete for two major sports simultaneously meant he had a ton of fans.
I wouldn’t say his career was short. He played in the NFL for 3 years, which is close to the average career length in that sport, and he was a running back which is the most physically punishing position in the sport. He suffered a hip injury in his final year in the NFL, and that kind of thing is hard to bounce back from at such a position.
He played in MLB for 8 years, a couple years longer than the average in that league. So it wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Rocky Marciano (8 years)
Jackie Robinson (10 years, unless you include his Negro League days - I would argue that his reputation in the sport does not rest on his performance in those years)
You can’t compare to the average. The average includes all sorts of on-the-bubble players who get cut early on. The average for great players is much longer. To be an all-time great while playing even close to the average number of years is an accomplishment.
“Only” 9 seasons in the NFL is a long time, taking into account all of hits he took. He was great every year.
Koufax is an interesting case. He was in the big leagues for 12 full years, the first six of which he had a nothing special 36-40 W/L record. The next six he earned the nickname “The left arm of God” for excellent reasons. Cite.
Both Brown and Koufax retired suddenly in the mid-1960s seemingly at the height of their careers. Koufax said his arm and shoulder couldn’t take the stress of pitching anymore, and Brown because he wanted to make movies in Hollywood with Raquel Welch. Both made good decisions methinks.
How short are we talking? For MLB, Jeff Bagwell and Joe DiMaggio are fairly high on the WAR leaderboards, despite only playing 14 and 13 years respectively. God forbid this were to happen, but if Mike Trout were to die in a plane crash today, he’d win this category handily: Less than 1200 games played over eight years, when most of the others near him in WAR have 1700-2000 and beyond, and he already has 72 WAR/position.
For the NFL, Jim Brown’s already been mentioned. If you go by Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric (which is nowhere near as well-thought of as WAR), Barry Sanders is a reasonable answer to this question, with 150 AV, and only 9 seasons. AV doesn’t think as highly of him as I do, but Calvin Johnson has to be considered too: 731 receptions, 11,619 yds, 84 total TDs.
Bo Jackson’s career stats: 38 G: 515 Rushing attempts, 2,782 yds, 5.4 y/att, 16 TDs. 40 Receptions, 352 yds., 2 TDs. Famous certainly. Ungodly talented. Despite the great yards per attempt, not a great career, though certainly a famous one.
Barry Sanders?
3.3 years is the average NFL career length, but that includes a whole lot of players that barely made a team. The NFL says the average is 6 years for those players who make a club’s opening day roster in their rookie season. For someone as talented as Bo Jackson I would have expected him play even longer.
These aren’t the winners, but a couple of ideas:
LT Tony Boselli had a HOF-worthy career in just 7 seasons. His playing days were ended by a shoulder injury.
He didn’t play nearly long enough to have been considered an “all-time great,” but Sean Taylor still casts a large shadow over the safety position in the NFL. He played just 4 seasons before he was murdered.
Dizzy Dean. He played 5 1/2 seasons, wrecked his arm after an injury, then came back in limited use. Played just over 300 games, won 185 of them, including a 30-7 record one year. Even in 1938, with a ruined arm, he managed to go 7-1 with a 1.81 ERA in 13 games, and still had enough left for a 6-4/3.36 record in 1939.
Gale Sayers.
You have to take into account that he only played half seasons, because he wouldn’t report to football until after the baseballs season ended. So he never played a down in September. If you count college in his appeal to greatness, he’s one of the all time great college players.
Addie Joss’ career lasted 9 season (1902-10) for Cleveland in the American leagues before he died of tuberculous meningitis. His career 1.89 is second all time. The first “all-star” game was played as a benefit for Joss’s family in July 1911. They waived the rule requiring a ten year career to elect him to the Hall of Fame.
Wiki says, of Rookie Of the Year Maurice Stokes:
Set the single-season rebound record in the process, because of course he did.