1. All you did was post a one sided article about a one sided study. I want to see the study on time there is actual action in baseball. You haven't proven a thing as of yet. You've given your opinion, and that's fine.

5. For girls, yes. :lol: No greater sport than football, my opinion, of course.

1. Which is substantially more proof than you've provided. I'm too lazy to look for anymore until I need to.

5. Girls play sports? In all seriousness, you said that in sports popularity matter and there isn't a more popular "sport" than soccer.

Great thead, by the way.

 

For those of you who haven't heard it before, my dad was a three-sport coach back in the day. Football in the fall; and he was a football coach first and foremost. Old school - I believe his favorite remedy for football injuries was to "rub some dirt on it".

 

Wrestling in the winter. Although he played city league basketball way back in the day in Annapolis; wrestling was his second love - wrestled in college. That's the sport I chose; but I attended a different high school than at the one where he worked. We joked that basketball was the winter sissy sport - kids running around in their underwear bouncing a ball up and down. He to this day will swear that the only part of a basketball game worth watching is the last two minutes.

 

Track & field in the spring. Mostly to make his football players better.

 

 

The high school that I follow has had more success in basketball than any other sport; you would have to be in a cave not to know that.

 

But football is still my favorite - and the best - team sport. Nothing - NOTHING - beats Friday night lights.

All of this great wrestling background and you still say this? So disappointing. Just to make sure it's clear...nothing beats mano y mano on the mats!

As you know, for every one of those there is one of these:

As I said. I haven't once tried to say baseball players are great athletes. I actually didn't bring up athleticism at all until PP92 said football players were the best.

There's been some interesting back and forth about football and athleticism. To that end, I'd submit just this: football's training methods are focused toward skills that are simply not valuable in any other sport. It's about burst speed and overall strength. Due to the nature of the game, endurance (which is at the heart of most other sports) simply doesn't have to be valued. It's the same principle as to why there are no 6-4, 220-pound soccer players. You'd be skinny too if you ran 6.5 miles during a 90-minute game with only one break and a training regimen to match. Speed and agility are the most important qualities which is why the best soccer players on the planet tend to be shorter, with a lower center of gravity and, interestingly enough, small feet. Size and strength are typically not important in a game that is only occasionally physical and actually favors smaller players.

This is a very fair post.

Having worked with and trained all the above mentioned athletes, I can say that football players are generally the best overall athletes out there. From a movement and functional standpoint, basketball players generally have a more difficult time with movements involved in other sports. They move laterally extremely well, but get them in a straightline and things change.

Wrestlers also struggle a good bit. Give me a DB and I'll put his athleticism up against anyone out there.

 

All that said, very difficult to actually say who is the best athlete. If a high level basketball player had decided to take his sporting path down the football route, or a high level wrestler, triathlete, soccer player down a route of a different sport, they would probably excel. Most all professional athletes are different than the normal person, they could likely be elite level at anything they wanted.

The original post doesn't deal with who are the best athletes though. I'm just saying that football isn't so great...

 

I do tend to agree with the second paragraph in theory. Most high level athletes are going to excel at athletic endeavors...period.

No one sports training prepares you for a different sport. Former, how do figure you would have fared hitting the football field? You knock football players for only having to go a few second at a time. Do me a favor...push a 180 lb sled for 8 seconds, rest 40 seconds....repeat 10 times. You can argue athletic all day but if you think football players aren't amoung the fittest athletes you couldn't be more wrong.

 

As far as athlete...speed, quickness, flexibility, agility, strength...none of those sports you named has as even a mix of these things as football players. Soccer? Give me a break, endurance with some speed, nothing more. Swimmers, you lose credibility...MMA & wrestlers I put together...probably as close as any but mostly just nuts with alot of dumb mixed in, I'll take a 300 pound lineman over Roy Nelson any day.

I would have fared very poorly. I also wrestled at 103lbs. But for the sake of argument let's scale down the football field to weight classes (as I'm doing with MMA and wrestling) and then I dare say I would have excelled. Athleticism to me has nothing to do with your size. However in football I could EASILY do all the motions required but to say that I could've taken repeated hits from a 250lb guy is just foolish. If you are going to give strength exercises and the like then at least do it at scale. If you do that then I can easily hang with any football player. Because a football player is going to need to push a 360lb sled in your above scenario...

 

I like how you picked Roy Nelson out of all the options. He is the only UFC guy who looks that way. Wrestling/MMA have all of those without a doubt and much more than football in my opinion. Basketball is the same way. Swimming uses your entire body. The only thing that football has over some of these is that for very quick bursts they excel---but hell my lazy dog can outrun or jump any of them.

 

I also consider endurance to be an athletic skill.

To make that list and leave off Supercross/Motocross pro's is so laughable, I'll pass on a comment.

I'm not sure if you are serious or not. I don't know enough about either Supercross/Motocross or you to decipher it.

No one sports training prepares you for a different sport. Former, how do figure you would have fared hitting the football field? You knock football players for only having to go a few second at a time. Do me a favor...push a 180 lb sled for 8 seconds, rest 40 seconds....repeat 10 times. You can argue athletic all day but if you think football players aren't amoung the fittest athletes you couldn't be more wrong.

 

As far as athlete...speed, quickness, flexibility, agility, strength...none of those sports you named has as even a mix of these things as football players. Soccer? Give me a break, endurance with some speed, nothing more. Swimmers, you lose credibility...MMA & wrestlers I put together...probably as close as any but mostly just nuts with alot of dumb mixed in, I'll take a 300 pound lineman over Roy Nelson any day.

And how can you even think to call wrestler/mma fighters "mostly just nuts with alot of dumb mixed in" while defending football? I don't know of any wrestlers/mma fighters who can't speak and/or walk...now that is "nuts with alot of dumb mixed in".

I would have fared very poorly. I also wrestled at 103lbs. But for the sake of argument let's scale down the football field to weight classes (as I'm doing with MMA and wrestling) and then I dare say I would have excelled. Athleticism to me has nothing to do with your size. However in football I could EASILY do all the motions required but to say that I could've taken repeated hits from a 250lb guy is just foolish. If you are going to give strength exercises and the like then at least do it at scale. If you do that then I can easily hang with any football player. Because a football player is going to need to push a 360lb sled in your above scenario...

 

I like how you picked Roy Nelson out of all the options. He is the only UFC guy who looks that way. Wrestling/MMA have all of those without a doubt and much more than football in my opinion. Basketball is the same way. Swimming uses your entire body. The only thing that football has over some of these is that for very quick bursts they excel---but hell my lazy dog can outrun or jump any of them.

 

I also consider endurance to be an athletic skill.

Ok, a sled equal to your weight. I assumed you were at least bigger than the chearleaders at your school.

 

Interesting you call me out on Roy when you post a pic of a 300lb lineman as your example instead of someone like Clay Mathews.

 

What you aren't getting is you could take any of the athletes you claim are superior and have them do the work football players do and they would fail just like the you say the football players failed at wrestling. And I completely disagree with endurance being a skill. Just about anyone can have endurance if they work at it but not matter how hard I try I will never run a 4.4 40, have a 40" vertical, or bench 400 lbs.

And how can you even think to call wrestler/mma fighters "mostly just nuts with alot of dumb mixed in" while defending football? I don't know of any wrestlers/mma fighters who can't speak and/or walk...now that is "nuts with alot of dumb mixed in".

The nuts and crazy part was more for the MMA guys. What do you think a knock out is?

All of this great wrestling background and you still say this? So disappointing. Just to make sure it's clear...nothing beats mano y mano on the mats!

 

Yes, I still say it - the operative phrase being team sport.

 

I was part of a wrestling team. But the notion of wrestling being a team sport, as you have pointed out with your comment - is laughable.

 

I agree 100% that amateur wrestling is the best individual sport.

1. Which is substantially more proof than you've provided. I'm too lazy to look for anymore until I need to.

5. Girls play sports? In all seriousness, you said that in sports popularity matter and there isn't a more popular "sport" than soccer.

1. Disagree. A one sided study isn't more proof than a single opinion. I'm too laze too, so we'll just have to disagree. :lol:

 

5. Not in this country. Not even remotely close.

Ok, a sled equal to your weight. I assumed you were at least bigger than the chearleaders at your school.

 

Interesting you call me out on Roy when you post a pic of a 300lb lineman as your example instead of someone like Clay Mathews.

 

What you aren't getting is you could take any of the athletes you claim are superior and have them do the work football players do and they would fail just like the you say the football players failed at wrestling. And I completely disagree with endurance being a skill. Just about anyone can have endurance if they work at it but not matter how hard I try I will never run a 4.4 40, have a 40" vertical, or bench 400 lbs.

:lol: Hey, it didn't stop me from dating the cheerleaders.

 

There are a lot more examples of 300lb lineman than there are of Roy.

 

Craig Alexander ran an 8:03 at Kona a few weeks ago. That is a level of endurance not many people can achieve. Just like the stats you listed.

Yes, I still say it - the operative phrase being team sport.

 

I was part of a wrestling team. But the notion of wrestling being a team sport, as you have pointed out with your comment - is laughable.

 

I agree 100% that amateur wrestling is the best individual sport.

I do typically call wrestling an individual sport. I didn't mean to refer to it as a team sport in this thread but if I did it was a mistake.

 

But, I wrestled for an elite school in Kentucky (won state duals). We were very much a team and operated just like one. Ask around about LaRue County--we have a reputation for how Coach wrestles our dual meets.

1. Disagree. A one sided study isn't more proof than a single opinion. I'm too laze too, so we'll just have to disagree. :lol:

 

5. Not in this country. Not even remotely close.

1. I love any argument that ends in laziness. In the spirit of that I'll carry it on to #5.

 

5. I never said this country but I do believe I've seen something that said more people play soccer in this country than any other sport. Or maybe it was just kids. Not sure. But I'm not looking it up.