Smartest and dumbest athletes

whodat whodere wrote:

I know this is from the runner bubble, but Alan Webb is not so intelligent (makes me wonder if classes had anything to do with his dropping out of Michigan and not just poor running). Also, Ben Wallace and Marvin Harrison aren't the brightest crayons in the box.

Some former athletes that seem to be fairly intelligent include Tiki Barber, Mike Golic, Sean Salsbury (although not a stud quarterback), Greg Anthony, and Troy Aikmen, to name a few.

You're just naming sports commentators (that seem to be well-spoken).

Pat McInally

a regular poster on the wall wrote:

Oh me! Oh me! 150+ IQ, 1500+ SAT

You're badly mistaken if you think you're the only poster who meets those criteria. The rest, I've noticed, were smart enough not to bring it up.

whodat whodere wrote:

Some former athletes that seem to be fairly intelligent include Tiki Barber, Mike Golic, Sean Salsbury (although not a stud quarterback), Greg Anthony, and Troy Aikmen, to name a few.

You may want to take Sean Salisbury's name off of your list.

I have heard from someone with an obscure connection to Shaq that he is pretty stupid. The claim is backed by his interview skills, his failure to finish school at a time when lots of players did, and his crossed eyes. In a couple more years he will be sitting next to Charles Barkley on TNT and their combined stupidity will trigger the collapse of modern America as we know it.

werweoijoitt wrote:

Tiger is definitely smart... Tyson is not that dumb though. He's not brilliant, but he has a pretty good vocabulary.

Wayne Gretzky,

I'll agree with you on Tiger; I've seen him in enough interviews to be able to tell he is bright.

Tyson; even pulling out the lisp and the high voice he is as dumb as a sack of hammers.

Gretzky, nice guy, great hockey player, pulled out of school very early by his dad and is as dumb as a post according to a couple of people I've met who know him. He does not seem smart by any stretch in any interviews I've seen.

I'd go with golfers and some of the runners; Coe, Ovett, Shorter.

Wacky thread!

America hasn't collapsed already?

Actually, "Agreeable" is right. Bill Bradley's SAT scores were not very high -- nowhere near the average for Princeton at the time. And, although he wasn't a horrible student at Princeton, he wasn't a brilliant student, either. There are various routes toward Rhodes Scholarships. Bradley's route was primarily through basketball.

Within the U.S., the best example of a great scholar-athlete that I recall was Byron White. Athletically, he was the most sought-after college football player in the country, and was the NFL's leading rusher in two of the three years of his brief NFL career. Academically, he was a Rhodes Scholar, an outstanding student at Yale Law School, and a clerk for Chief Justice Vinson of the U.S. Supreme Court after graduating from law school. White later became the first former Supreme Court clerk to return to the Court as a justice.

I've known many athletes who were very bright.

escargot wrote:

Smart? Paul Gompers is, based on his current position and degrees, a pretty bright bulb.

I used to run with Guy Arbogast. He seemed pretty sharp.

Based on the number of times he told me so, I can confirm that Paul Gompers is brilliant, a genius. Hopefully he grew out of it.

And about Arbo, um, I'm speechless.

Yawn n awe, do tell!

Oh, and White also graduated first in his class in high school, first in his class in college, and first in his class at Yale Law School -- the same year that he led the NFL in rushing.

roger federer. how else would someone completely dominate a game as evolving as tennis for years in a row?

Andy Baddeley- 3:52 mile and 1st with distinction MEng (in aerospace engineering) from Cambridge university.

myself.. wrote:

roger federer. how else would someone completely dominate a game as evolving as tennis for years in a row?

Roger is exceedingly bright. As is Navratilova.

Ron Clarke.

Mayor Gold Coast Australia.

Not sure if that is smart or cunning.

MARION JONES, REGINA JACOBS, CJ HUNTER, TIM MONTGOMERY,

JUSTIN GATLIN, FLOYD LANTIS(EVERYBODY WHOEVER RODE IN THE TOUR FOR THAT MATTER),BEN JOHNSON, THE ENTIRE CHINESE AND EAST GERMAN WOMENS TRACK AND FIELD TEAMS, MICHELLE SMITH, BARRY BONDS, MARK MCGUIRE,JOSE CANSECO, ROGER CLEMENS, FLO-JO,THE NFL ETC,ETC,ETC

This weeks saying from my training Diary.

"Some off the Worlds greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to realise they were impossible"

Doug. Larson.

There was a quaterback for the Bengals in the 60's (whose name escapes me) who was some sort of math prodigy

I think his name was Pat Ryan; I was thinking at first Mike Ryan but he was a runner for the Air Force at the time.