Football players are the best athletes on earth--you're an idiot if you think otherwise.

Uh, no. No sport that relies so heavily -- more so than any popular sport -- on specialized positions on both offense and defense -- can be said to have the best athletes. There's too much variation in what football players do. In no other popular world team sport do athletes NOT play both offense and defense. In no other popular world team sport is there so much break between plays. In no other popular world team sport is there so much emphasis on equipment, to the point where you can't even recognize individual players.

It's too specialized a sport to make a blanket statement like that.

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Ok so obviously no football player is gonna beat Usain Bolt in a footrace--duh. But one of the worst parts of track and field is the indignant fans who think the sport actually hosts the best athletes on earth. Ashton Eaton would be destroyed on the gridiron, as would any other Olympian. There's just no contest. Football is the biggest, fastest, strongest form of competition on earth. NFL players are absolute freaks of nature. Track stars are b list athletes, most of whom just couldn't make it in real sports where the athletes are paid real well.

All that being said, I cannot stand football. I'm not a fan and I avoid watching it whenever possible. But I do recognize the fact that football players are obviously the best athletes on earth. Being angry about that isn't gonna help the sport of track and field.

You haven't watched much sports, huh? Stay away from ESPN, dude.

Any hockey player over the age of 12 is tougher and more skilled than any football player, AT ANY LEVEL.

/eot

To the guy who said Rugby, GTFO.

Give an average rugby coach control of USA Rugby with a year to train the NFL players of his choice and he would win the 7s world championship with ease. Within 2-3 years USA Rugby would be the best Rugby 15s national team in the world by a wide margin. Sorry, but its true. And I like rugby.

Hell, give USA Rugby a college guy like Myles Jack and he would be the best 7s player on earth in a year. Elite college LB and RB in case you haven't heard of him. Played both ways at a high level for a good part of the 2013 season.

Keep in mind that most WRs, RBs, TEs etc in the NFL are also making tackles on special teams. Only the very top tier guys are truly specialized.

Football players? No way. The best athletes are CrossFit Games contestants. Everyone should know that by now.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

This is what you get when you put a football player against a real athlete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDtmFXiINfs

Not even in his best event

I enjoyed this clip. Moses beat these two guys who were real start:

Wilbert Montgomery

Led the NFL with 2100+ all-purpose yards in 1979, including 1500+ rushing yards

Billy Sims

1978 Heisman winner

In the NFL rushed for 1300+ yards in 1980 and 1400+ in 1981

I would argue that a basketball player on the NBA level is a great athlete. However, I believe that the high level hockey player, D1 on up, are truly the best athletes in the world. On a thin, steel blade, hard forward and side movements. A requirement for great hand-eye coordination, and for finesse and ability to take a blow.

No where else is this true. In football, several players can be linemen, and not meet these skills. Soccer has some of these skill requirements, but not all.

Basketball, on a high level, can meet most of these, without the fact of someone trying to knock you down or on a thin blade on ice.

Okay first lets look at football... You have plays that last for 4 seconds then you huddle back up for 2 minutes and play for 4 more seconds. By the end of the day you've put 3 hours of hupla into maybe 10 minutes of actual physical effort.. To say these are the best athletes? Maybe certain individuals but I would say that their sport is possibly the stupidest in terms of fitting their athletic abilitt

So true look at old football cards of the height and weight of players and then tell me what is the freaky part. I would say any guy with decent genetics and a slightly larger than average muscle mass was as strong as some players from the 60's and early 70's.

Most NASCAR drivers and most professional golfers are more athletic than NFL offensive linemen

hardly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wrote:

Any hockey player over the age of 12 is tougher and more skilled than any football player, AT ANY LEVEL.

/eot

Please. This past winter I coached my kids 14-15 year-old basketball team, and we played a team that had a very good hockey player on their squad, and he was by far one of the worst players and athletes on the floor.

Can't believe it 5 pages before someone brought up Superstars. Here's the list of all the winners

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars#2012:_Olympic_Superstars

Track guys hold up just fine - especially when you consider the track backgrounds of Gault, Walker and even O.J.

But everyone knows the best athletes are on Ninja Warrior.

The best athletes in the world aren't even athletes. Male and female ballet dancers are freaks who train all day in all aspects of athleticism. They can do things with their bodies football players can't even come close to doing.

ins wrote:

But everyone knows the best athletes are on Ninja Warrior.

This. Thread over. lol

Ever heard of Aussie Rules Football?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1aU0hz5Tf8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQuoyiAg5G4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qy4IcujaSI

my money is on gymnasts

From a statistical standpoint, the best athletes in any sport are those individuals farthest (outliers) from the mean (average athlete). For a given sport, you will have outliers distributed farther from the mean (more standard deviations) with the more overall athletes competing/trying to compete in the sport.

So my theory is the best athletes in the world are in those sports that everyone wants to participate in or can participate in. For example, hockey is very limiting because it requires ice or an ice rink, skates, pads, helmet and other players. And most of the world doesn't even try to play it. So, compared to other sports, I'd think hockey players are not great athletes.

On the other hand, soccer has few requirements - a ball, a field and a few other players. Plus it is played all over the planet. Therefore, soccer has to be one of the sports with the best athletes.

Similarly, I'd also argue distance running has to be very high, whereas cycling is probably pretty low.

I think that it's hard to judge that all players are great runners. How is to watch matches https://www.footballstream.co/ and than you can to analyze.

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Ok so obviously no football player is gonna beat Usain Bolt in a footrace--duh. But one of the worst parts of track and field is the indignant fans who think the sport actually hosts the best athletes on earth. Ashton Eaton would be destroyed on the gridiron, as would any other Olympian. There's just no contest. Football is the biggest, fastest, strongest form of competition on earth. NFL players are absolute freaks of nature. Track stars are b list athletes, most of whom just couldn't make it in real sports where the athletes are paid real well.

All that being said, I cannot stand football. I'm not a fan and I avoid watching it whenever possible. But I do recognize the fact that football players are obviously the best athletes on earth. Being angry about that isn't gonna help the sport of track and field.

I played at the D1AA level. B- rated athletes in comparison to the freaks in the Big 10, SEC and some other powerhouses. The level of freak that it takes to play at the highest level of football can't be measured. I'll venture to say Defensive Backs specifically, could arguably be the best pure athletes. We're talking guys that may weigh anywhere from 190-230, they all possess elite explosiveness, agility, strength that can knock any man out, hand eye, and split second reactive instincts. Look through some NFL DB's bio's. Most if not all were multi sport All State athletes in HS.