August 13, 2025 • 68 mins
What makes a truly great athlete? Is it dominance in a single sport, versatility across multiple disciplines, or possessing physical gifts that defy normal human limitations? In this thought-provoking roundtable, our panel of sports experts – Matt, Mike, and TJ – tackle the fascinating question of who deserves recognition as the greatest athletes of all time.
The conversation begins with a surprising debate about which professional sports league features the most athletic players. While the NFL receives its expected praise for specialized athleticism, the panel makes a compelling case for NHL players deserving more recognition. As our host notes, "If you put NFL players in skates, most of them fall on their face," highlighting how the coordination and balance required for hockey represents a unique athletic challenge that's often underappreciated.
From Michael Phelps to Wilt Chamberlain, the discussion examines what separates merely excellent athletes from the truly transcendent ones. Chamberlain's case proves particularly fascinating – beyond his NBA dominance, he became a professional volleyball player, marathon runner in his 50s, and was considered stronger than both Andre the Giant and Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Hollywood days. These cross-discipline achievements raise important questions about how we define athletic greatness.
The panel also explores the underrated athleticism of professional boxers, Olympic wrestlers, and even WWE performers. As TJ notes about boxers, "The mental toughness it takes to be a boxer, to be able to just do that, to be able to say, 'Hey, my body's on the line here and I'm sitting here trying to defend myself and also knock out the guy that's in front of me'" represents a unique combination of physical and psychological demands that few other sports require.
Whether you're passionate about sports history or simply curious about human physical potential, this conversation will challenge your thi
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home
Rants podcast.
This is your special guest,host Fitty, and today I'm
filling in for Mike Bono, as webring you the greatest athletes
ever roundtable with threephenomenal guests bringing in
the big three.
And notice, ain't LeBron Jamesbringing in the big three?
This is the Ride Home Rants bigthree right here, with special
(00:24):
guest host Fitty turning the micon these questions today.
So before we get into the show,though, make sure you peep all
of our sponsors in the pre-rolland post-roll.
They're all small businessowners.
They're great supporters ofthis show.
They help make this show goalong with all of our listeners
and these special guests whohave been on for individual
shows and roundtables.
Today we bring you the big threein here who have been involved
(00:46):
in sports on multiple levels,whether it's college athletics,
it's college coaching, highschool coaching, educating.
They're going to give you a lotof great insight to the
greatest athletes ever as webreak down a lot of great
questions here for you.
So I'd like to introduce myguests Matt, mike and TJ.
They're going to go through,introduce themselves, guys, and
then you're going to telleverybody what your favorite
(01:07):
subject in high school was, andthen are you a fan of fishing?
And if you are a fan, where'syour favorite place to go
fishing at?
So we'll start with you, matt.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, my name is Matt .
I'm happy to be here.
My favorite subject in schoolwas either advanced physical
education or weightlifting andno other no others in the
running and absolutely lovefishing but actually love
watching my son fishing morethan I actually like to fish.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, spoken like a true proud dad right there, matt
.
So looking like a true prouddad right there.
So let's go to Mike.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah, so favorite subject was probably AP Psych.
I jumpstarted my whole careerand then not a big fisherman,
but can't say no to a boat day.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Okay, okay, and TJ.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
TJ Lett.
Glad to be back In high school.
My favorite subject was history.
I just love the differentopinions and the different ways
that you can go about looking atit, trying to learn from it,
trying to dissect it, and youknow, just you know, going
through all the things that'shappened in the past and trying
to be better in the future.
But I can count on one hand thetimes I've held a fishing rod.
(02:23):
So I'm not a big fisherman atall, but definitely boats.
Boats are great.
I love being on a boat and, youknow, just hanging out.
So I'm halfway there.
We'll see what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, okay, my favorite subject in school, man,
I really liked gym class.
Gym class was a lot of fun.
We got to do swimming as well.
So I grew up um being in a in apool like.
We were taught that from anearly age in school.
Um really like those gymclasses, though, man.
We used to have the wiffle balltournaments and the soccer
tournaments.
Um play flag football on on, uh, on the hill outside um.
(02:57):
So a lot of good times, a lotof good times.
So probably favorite subject waswas gym, um, and then no, I am
not a fisherman.
I do not like touching fish andI do not have the heart to pull
a fish out of the water andwatch it die on shore.
So just, unfortunately not mything.
But I do respect fishermenbecause that is a way way harder
(03:18):
endeavor than what people think.
So it kind of leads us intothen these questions, right?
So, matt, we're going to startwith you on this, and then we're
going to go Mike and then we'regoing to go TJ.
But you have the NFL, the NHL,the NBA and MLB.
How would you rank them fromthe most athletic individuals to
(03:51):
the least athletic individuals?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Wow, you're leading off with the tough ones right
here.
But you know, I think all foursports you get to see
athleticism on full display.
The NFL I'd probably ranknumber one because it's very
specialized and very unique perposition and skills.
So you need to have specializedniche athleticism.
Obviously the NBA, but I mean,up until my son started playing
(04:22):
travel hockey and getting intoice hockey, I tell you you got
to be a good athlete to play inthe NHL too, because geez, oh
man, then I don't know, it'shard.
You got to try to hit a 99 milean hour fastball too.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So I don't know, I'd probably stick with my initial
initial right off the batthoughts of I'd go NFL, nba, nhl
, major League Baseball, if youput me to it.
Okay.
Okay, mike, what are you sayingabout this?
Yeah, so I, I think nfl has gotto be at the top.
Um, those guys are freaks.
Um, just, you see so many peoplewho never make it in the nhl or
, sorry, the NFL that are justphenomenal athletes and they
make it in another sport.
Right, they'll transition andthey'll be almost at the same
(05:13):
level in something that theydidn't even really focus on.
Um, then you know, I'm going toflip it just a little bit.
Uh, with nhl being second andnba being third.
Um, just, I think I gained alot of appreciation for the nhl.
Uh, with my cousins playinghockey, and every so often I'll
(05:37):
see a wayne gretzky uh thingcome up on, you know instagram
reels or something, where he'sjust dusting some soccer player
um in a sprint and like somekind of performance thing.
Nba, obviously, I mean that'swhere it gets like from.
Like, you can just be a freakathlete and then learn some
skill, learn the skills.
(05:58):
But then nba and mlb I mean theskill to be, be in a
three-pointer consistently andthe skill to even look at a
fastball is insane.
We have a track guy now who'sbeen embroiled in some
controversy but he keeps postingthat he's joining the MLB.
(06:21):
I'm looking at his posts andI'm like Fred man, what are you
doing?
The second, you see, he won'teven see.
He won't even see.
100 mile per hour fastball Iwould if I was given 1,000
attempts.
If I swung the bat 1,000 times,I would hit zero.
(06:43):
100 mile.
Anhour runs right down themiddle Absolutely none.
So still freak athletes forsure, but I think it does have
to rank fourth on that list.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Okay, now our resident baseball guy here, tj.
What do you got to say aboutall this?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Here's a surprise Baseball will be last for me me,
actually, for the least amountof athleticism.
Here's why you got some ofthese big, large power hitters.
That's what they're good at.
They're good at power hitting,but if you tell them to, hey,
we're gonna run a mile or we'regonna do a sprint, they're not
gonna be able to do that.
A high jump.
There most of them are quickbut it's not.
(07:22):
You can't compare theathleticism between them and
like an offensive lineman or adefensive lineman that have the
same body type.
So, no, baseball is last.
You don't need the athleticism.
The skill set's so specificthat you can not, you can be a
bad athlete but be a greatbaseball player.
So, yeah, that'll be last.
Actually for me, um, number one,I will say, as the nfl, they
(07:44):
just the things that they'reable to do with their bodies,
how quick they actually are.
I think because they're all sofast we don't realize how fast
they actually are unless we wereright next to them.
So, um, but you hear about thehow, their high jump athletes,
long jump athletes, and highschool, high school track
athlete, uh, you know, allAmerican, you know a hundred
(08:08):
yard, a hundred meter, uh, meter, sprint tapes.
So the NFL has definitely haveprobably the top athletes, and
then I'm going to go to the NHL.
The ability to skate already isan athletic movement that is not
common for most people and Ithink that we grow up.
Maybe it's just so because howwe are in America, we grew up
shooting basketballs, we grew upjumping, we grew up doing those
things.
But skating is such anunnatural movement.
You have to be an athlete to beable to have that type of
(08:30):
balance without your feet and beable to get up and down.
And they go so quick too.
It's unbelievable theirreaction times.
So NHL will be second, the NBAthird.
Again, they jump through theroof.
I just don't think weunderstand how athletic they are
.
You're on a court side seat andthings like that.
And then, like I said, the MLB.
The skills are special, theability to hit is special, the
(08:52):
ability to throw is special.
But you can also have AlejandroKirk, catcher for the Toronto
Blue Jays is 5'7", 240 pounds,and he's a professional baseball
player that can barely move,but he's great at what he does,
okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I'm going to give mine here.
I'm going to work backwards.
I'm going to say MLB for sureNot that there's not great
athletes there, and we're goingto talk about this a little bit
later but I'm going to say that.
I'm going to say the NBA, I'mgoing to say the NFL is second,
I'm going to say hockey is first, and TJ kind of touched upon
these reasons.
But I want you to think aboutthis.
Think about how athletic atennis player is.
With their stop-start lateralmovement.
(09:31):
They're probably quicker thanNFL wide receivers.
Now think about that tennisplayer doing that on skates,
moving side to side and front toback and stopping on a dime on
skates.
If you put NFL players inskates, most of them fall on
their face.
If you tell an NHL hockeyplayer to go run into somebody
(09:53):
as hard as they can and try totake them out on grass, they're
going to do it.
So you got to look at it thatway too.
More hockey players willsucceed being skill guys in
football because of theirathletic ability than NFL
players will succeed being skillguys in football because of
their athletic ability.
Then NFL players will be lesssuccessful on the ice because
they do not have thecoordination to stop and start
on a dime in skates because it'snot a natural movement, kind of
(10:17):
what TJ talked about.
But it's close, all right.
So number two here.
The second question I want toget everybody's opinion on this.
The Olympic great, michaelPhelps, is considered one of the
greatest athletes of all timefor his plethora of gold medals.
In the pool ranking, you know,or coming in, you know, his body
type is six foot five, enormouswingspan, you know.
(10:40):
His cardiovascular endurance isis one of the best, if not best
, probably, in modern history ofathletics.
Where does Michael Phelps rankas an all-time overall greatest
athlete, matt?
What's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think he's in the top 10.
He's got to be in the top 10.
You know it's hard to arguewith everything you just said.
So you know, uh, when peoplethink of and especially now as
time goes by, when they think ofOlympic swimming, they think of
Michael Phelps, just likeprobably all of us we're going
to touch to later all of ourother top athletes in all these
(11:17):
sports.
So his name immediately comesto mind.
So, yeah, I'd put them in thetop 10.
I mean, mean, I don't know,we'll probably get into later on
where everybody fits where.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So I'll just say top 10 okay, okay, coach larkin,
what do you say about this?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I like that answer.
I like that answer a lot.
Top 10.
I mean his, his accolades justfrom the metal total, his
longevity in the sport and thefact that, like, his skills are
so transferable out of the waterfrom the athletic perspective,
like man does not make lacticacid like a normal human being.
(11:53):
You put him on a bike, you puthim in endurance running, you
put him in anything where he'sable to, where recovery is the
limiting factor, he's gonnacrush so many people.
So, like, yeah, does he everdevelop the skill to, you know,
(12:14):
catch a one-handed uh pass inthe end zone and toe tap out of
bounds in the nfl, bro, whoknows right?
But but his pure genetics forbeing an elite athlete, he's
going to out-recover everybody,and at the top level.
That's what you need.
So I like that top 10 answerman.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Okay, okay, tj, what are you saying about this?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I completely agree.
And the minute that, what cameto my mind was how elite are you
at what you do?
And obviously he's at the topof that list when it comes to
swimming and history, just in myopinion.
So that has to account forsomething.
There's been millions of peoplethat have tried to do what he
does and can't do it as well ashe does it.
So now you start to take in.
(13:01):
What does that mean?
That means that he had thededication to be able to perfect
that skill.
He had the mental capacity tobe able to withstand the ups and
downs and the hour-longpractices.
You hear about his meal planwhere it's like 15,000 calories
before noon or somethingridiculous, to be able to keep
that um, keep himself in prime,elite, olympic shape.
(13:24):
And for as many people thatnever even make it out of
qualifiers for him to go and runthe gauntlet as well as he did,
um, you know it goes for, ithas to go for something so he's
able to use his body, his body,extremely well.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So top 10 for sure is is an easy, easy, easy lock
okay, okay, now one of the nextguys we're going to talk about
is probably one of my favoriteum professional athletes of all
time.
I think he's probably um one ofthe top five athletes if of all
time, if not potentially numberone wilt chamberlain.
Wilt chamberllain was a pro NBAplayer of an offensive force
(14:00):
that the NBA has still neverseen.
Wilt Chamberlain retired fromthe NBA and became a
professional indoor volleyballplayer and a Hall of Famer in
indoor volleyball, standing atseven feet one.
He also became a marathonrunner in his 50s.
At 45 years old.
Wilt Chamberlain was offered anNBA contract after being
(14:21):
retired, and there is storiesout there that when Magic
Johnson came into the league in1980, a retired Wilt Chamberlain
came in and beat the livingshit out of Magic Johnson in
practice and humbled him, andthen Magic Johnson thus went on
and won an nba finals mvp thatyear.
Will chamberlain also was adynamic track guy in college as
(14:45):
a sprinter, jumper, um andthrower.
If he's like a 57 foot shotputter, 10.9 in the 100 yard
dash over 50 foot triple jumperprobably most impressive, though
, um, for us old guys here will.
Will Chamberlain played in Conanthe Destroyer with Andre the
Giant and Arnold Schwarzeneggerand you think about Andre the
(15:06):
Giant.
For people that don't know him,he was 7'4", 500 pounds.
Rest in peace, you know.
And Arnold Schwarzeneggerprobably two of the strongest
human beings ever.
They both said Will Chamberlainwas stronger than both of them.
He could curl over 500 pounds.
Now it's according to ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
So, with all that being saidand what we know about Will
Chamberlain, where does WillChamberlain rank as one of the
(15:29):
most dominant and athleticpeople of all time?
Matt, what would you say about?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
this.
I mean, the stats don't lie, andeverything you said is true.
Like I said, he's got to be upthere.
I think most of the people youhave in here I think I'm the
oldest one on the round table,so thanks for having an old guy
on here you know, it's reallydifficult when you start
thinking about this, and we'regoing to be on the show of
(15:56):
people that you've only heardstories of or you've seen
highlight films of, that younever really got to see in
person.
So I kind of almost feel like Iwas robbed of not being able to
appreciate an athlete like WiltChamberlain, you know, in real
time.
But I mean everything you said.
I mean he's got to be up there.
I mean, you know, if you justname a mount rushmore of nba
(16:22):
talents, he'd be up there, um,but if you're talking overall
athletes, he's got to be theretoo.
But, uh, you know, you shouldremember, uh, luau sindor was in
enter the dragon though, too,and you're talking about movies.
I, I thought you're gonna gothat.
I thought you're gonna go thatroute, because watching him, uh,
uh, kicking bruce lee waspretty impressive too.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So yeah, okay, that was a good one.
I forgot, I forgot about that.
Um, you know, coach larkin,you're a, you're a track guy,
you know, uh, you really.
But knowing about willchamberlain's prowess and that
you know where does, willchamberlain rank those the
greatest athlete of all time inyour opinion?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
hey, again, I feel like as we go through like these
you know greats it's gonna belike, oh crap, I forgot about
him.
This top 10 list is gonnaexpand real quick.
Um, but like the biggest knockon will chamberlain's career was
that, did he score?
Did he really score 100?
(17:16):
And it's like, yeah, maybe heonly scored 93, but that's still
ridiculous.
It's like, yeah, maybe he onlyscored 93, but that's still
ridiculous.
It's like, ah, he might nothave scored 100, but it was
90-something.
It's like, does it reallymatter at that point if you lost
by so much that people forgotno, it must have been 100.
Yeah, so it's tough.
And coming from the track world,nobody does that anymore.
(17:39):
And he's built different.
He's skinny but throws the shotput Like a nuke right, then
triple jumps, then sprints highjumps.
If he had been a decathlete hewould have been a decathlon
world champion.
If he had been a triple jumper,he probably would have been a
(18:01):
world champion triple jumper.
He did more than Phelps did,which we just talked about.
He's top 10, so Wilt's got tobe higher just by breadth of his
(18:22):
uh, his athletic ability andthat he's shown at an elite
level sure, sure, tj.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I know you're the youngest guy on the panel here,
but, uh, what are you sayingabout will chamberlain?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
yeah, I've obviously only know the stories, only know
, maybe only get to see some ofthe the grainy video, but you
can see the fear of the peoplethat were around him on the
court.
You could see that they were.
Just you know he's gonna dowhat he's gonna do and there's
not much that anybody else cando about it.
So he seems like the athleteand just like the little study
(18:55):
I've been doing because I youknow I like to study a lot of
great black athletes um, itseemed like basketball wasn't
even his best sport, which iskind of scary.
Um, you talked about thesprinting.
Um, I believe that was like thefirst one that they talked
about.
I was like he did it justbecause.
But he could have done thatuntil whenever he decided to
(19:15):
stop.
And can you imagine a guy, 7-1,just sprinting that fast?
Like, do you even want to bearound when that happens?
I'll let him finish first andwe'll come after.
But and you talk aboutpolarizing, there's a reason why
50, 60, 70 years later, he'sstill a guy you talk about,
(19:36):
still a guy you bring up, and aguy that if you were to plug him
in, even in this generation ofbasketball, in this generation
of athlete it would still stand,and those are few and far
between.
So I agree with that.
If we're talking top 10, he'syou know.
Now we're getting into that six, five, four range now with Will
Chamberlain.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Sure, and I think the thing people got to realize is
I mean, he retired as a dominantNBA player, but he became a
professional volleyball player,and anyone that's tried to play
volleyball volleyball is noteasy, like your hand-eye
coordination and the movement,the lateral movement, the
jumping, the things that go intothat.
(20:12):
But then to get in the marathonrunning and then not even be in
the NBA for 10 years and getoffered a contract and go beat
up on Magic Johnson arguably topthree NBA player of all time
and then to have Andre the Giantand Arnold Schwarzenegger
compliment you and say howstrong, how physically just
strong you are at 50 years oldand yeah, think Arnold Jung
(20:35):
right, that's 40 years ago.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 36, 37years old, right, like prime
Arnold, you know.
Will Chamberlain's 50, you know, and he's still just just
barbarically strong.
I mean, said he, just, he wouldrun out of weights trying to
weightlift with those guys.
So I'll tell you what, though,matt, that would have been one
heck of a weight room sessionseeing Arnold and Andre the
(20:57):
Giant and Will Chamberlainthrown around some weight man,
that would have been one heck ofa weight room session.
So one of the next things I wantto go into we're talking about
now.
We're talking about some twosporters here.
We'll bring up a couple of guysyou know Bo Jackson, deion
Sanders both played in the NFLand the MLB.
You had John Elway, who won acouple couple Super Bowls as an
(21:19):
NFL starting quarterback,drafted in the second round of
the MLB by the Yankees.
Why do you think, in youropinions, is there such a higher
correlation with NFL playersplaying in the MLB, or having
that opportunity to play in theMLB, compared to the NBA or NHL?
(21:39):
Why do you think that NFL MLBconnection is so much smoother
than the NBA or NHL?
So, matt, what's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I think it used to be much more of a correlation.
Now, now you're seeing, you'reright.
Like you mentioned, like KylerMurray too, was recently drafted
pretty high for the A's andended up turning.
You ended up turning down theirmoney in playing.
I think a lot of it withfootball has to do with you know
you're going to train if youwant to be on an elite level,
(22:09):
train year round for footballand up until fairly recently it
was not a 365 day sport.
You know, just knowing, even atthe youth level, if you want to
do hockey and you want to dohockey at a high level, you're
doing it 10 months a year.
You know if you want to dobasketball, heck, they can do
(22:31):
basketball 11 and a half monthsa year, I think.
Anymore you can find leaguesand stuff to do.
So you know, up until fairlyrecently you know you were
training, so you're in shape,you're able to do that, and you
know what you get your trainingin.
And, heck, you might as wellplay baseball in the spring and
summer, because you couldn'tcould only play football in the
fall.
So I think that has a littlebit to do with it.
(22:53):
But you know also the specialspecialization of you know
athleticism in the NFL, you knowyou, they're going to find
somewhere.
If you're an athlete you'regoing to, you're going to find
somewhere to put, put them.
You know, and same thing withbaseball, I mean, you know.
So I guess that's that's it.
That's my rant.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
OK, ok, we let.
We love rants on the ride homerants podcast, so it's all about
.
So, mike, what are you sayingabout this?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, I agree it's more of a scheduling conflict
than anything.
Back in the day, you know,three sport athletes were really
common in high school andbecoming less and less common at
the high school level.
And then dual sport athletes incollege were common as well,
high school level.
And then dual sport athletes incollege were common as well,
(23:42):
and you'd see some of these nflguys who were also on college
basketball teams or also on thecollege baseball team.
And then when you get to thepro level, the scheduling for
nfl, nba is difficult.
It's really really hard to do,whereas the overlap for the nfl
on mlb isn't nearly as difficult, especially back when it was a
(24:06):
what?
15 game season, um.
So the, the toll it took onyour body was, you know, much
more confined.
There's not three pre games,there's not OTAs or it's not as
required.
And then the MLB season reallydoesn't overlap in any
(24:26):
meaningful way, especially ifyou're on a bad team.
So I do think that it'sprimarily scheduling.
But recently it's become moreof that specialization where we
don't see those people gettingdrafted in both at the same time
.
I think we'll still see, fromthe high school perspective, mlb
(24:52):
drafts out of high school.
So we'll still see some NFLguys that, oh yeah, remember
when he got drafted as a seniorto the Royals or something and
then never played.
And then finally it's a moneything where if you're going to
the NFL you're guaranteed thatmoney In the MLB, like you're
(25:15):
drafted, you might be on a busto nowhere and in triple a and
live there for 10 years and youknow it's just not as, not as
financially rewarding so quickly.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Sure, okay, you know, tj.
What do you say about this?
You know you're a former, youknow a college baseball player.
If you coached high schoolfootball, you've coached high
school baseball.
You know what are you sayingabout this with that correlation
compared to the MLB or, sorry,the NBA or the NHL.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think the first thing that came to my mind is
like, what do we start with?
And like, t-ball is usuallylike the first thing that people
get put into.
I think that that's kind of whyMLB is.
It's the one you do the longestfor for most people.
The second thing I thought ofwas OK, you know, we all go
shoot a basketball.
We could probably do that.
But your organized sportfootball it's really organized
(26:08):
from an early age.
So you learn all the technique,you learn, okay, this is what
linemen do, this is what thedefense does.
So you kind of learn all thatwhere basketball is kind of hey,
you know here's a layup, butyou know here's a layup, but you
know you can run around incircles and throw the ball up
and that's basketball untilyou're 10 years old.
So I think that kind ofcorrelates to the scheduling was
(26:36):
the first thing that came to mymind when it came to like I
stopped playing basketball inhigh school in 10th grade.
So I was a baseball first guy.
I loved football, but I wasreally small, so I was.
You know, I was only going tobe as good at football as I was
going to be.
But what happens is you gothrough a whole football season
really, which starts in thesummertime, a grueling football
season, week after week hittingeach other and weightlifting.
Then you're like, ok, when's myfirst break?
Your first break was basketballseason.
(26:57):
So a lot of people stop playingbasketball in the wintertime to
prepare for OK, now I'm goingto go to the spring and get
myself ready for baseball.
Also, if you're a high levelbaseball player, you can't go
six, eight months or whateverwithout swinging a baseball bat.
So in the wintertime you'reworking on your baseball stuff
(27:18):
and you're like, hey, I got athree-hour basketball practice
or I can go and take an hour inthe cages, things like that.
So the money definitely goesinto it too.
Now I see these really largeNBA contracts might make a shift
with this.
But those again, those are thetop guys.
It's not the end-of-the guysthat get, you know, whatever
thousands dollars, whatever theyget, still great.
But the minor leagues plays arole into how can I play in the
(27:45):
NFL now for money versus?
Do I have to go through the Dleague in basketball?
Do I have to go through theminor leagues in baseball?
So this is where you're goingto see a lot of athletes start
to choose football, um, andthey're trying to make football
safer, but, um, again, I justthink that baseball is because
that you start with T-ball soyoung.
That's why people naturallyhave done it for 15 years before
(28:07):
they make a decision.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, you know I I think I do agree with you guys
on this stuff, but I do alsothink there's some other factors
.
I think, like in the older days, nba players were a lot started
to get specialized and the NBA,I believe, became more of a
global game.
You had guys stop playing thoseother sports because, one, they
(28:43):
just weren't physically toughenough to play football anymore
and two, they had to become moreskilled.
Because probably since youcould argue Tim Duncan, even
though he was a US VirginIslands Dirk Nowitzki the
international players have keptcoming and coming and coming and
now you can say there's no NBAplayer who's American, who's in
(29:05):
the top five, maybe top six,best players in the NBA right
now.
So I think it has shifted NBAgood basketball players to stop
playing other sports becausethey now have such high
competition from internationalplayers in the basketball realm
for the NHL.
I think those other people don'tplay that sport because for
(29:26):
some reason as Americans we welaugh at the NHL.
I don't think we embrace that.
We we do not give those guysenough credit, whether it's
physically, emotionally,talent-wise, to give them the
time or day.
Now, I'm not a big NHL fan.
I do like the Islanders, butit's hard to watch a game on TV.
But I just don't think, asAmericans, we just give them the
(29:49):
time of day.
But I will tell you this mostNHL hockey players would beat
the living heck out of any NBA,mlb or NFL player in a fight.
You ever seen those guys fight?
Go watch Happy Gilmore too aswell, but I think that's their
thing too.
So I do think things haveshifted with the NBA dynamics of
around the world and peoplejust not giving the NHL the time
(30:11):
of day to do it.
Now I would be curious, just formyself, from wanting to know
this like do MLB play, or sorry,the NHL players from these
other countries?
Do they play any other sportsin those countries?
Maybe, maybe they play soccerfor for the, for the
coordination and the cardio, butI don't think they're probably
(30:32):
playing basketball in certainplaces, like in Canada, you know
, I don't think they're probablyplaying basketball in certain
places, like in Canada, you know, I don't think they're playing
football, because it's such anAmerican sport.
Maybe rugby, you know, whoknows?
I'd be curious about that.
But um, and I do think longgone are the days, though, of Bo
Jackson and Dion and and JohnElway, even Kyler Murray.
Jeff Samarja, the big receiverfrom Notre Dame back in the day,
(30:54):
who went to the MLB, had prettygood career, I think, with the
Cubs.
Um, so going on the next onethough, you know, um, matt, you
were on the round table back inthe summer we were talking about
, or last year.
I think it's even not lastsummer, we maybe it was last
summer, I can't even remember.
We have so many episodes here.
Everyone about 275ed aboutRocky Balboa.
(31:14):
We're going to talk about proboxing right now.
So now taking Rocky Balboa outof the equation because he
wasn't a true, real boxer.
You know, matt, in your opinion, how athletic are professional
boxers?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Unreal athleticism.
You know from being on thatroundtable, you know my opinion
on boxing.
I love boxing, I grew upwatching it.
Yeah, they have to be unrealathletes because you have to
have cardio, you have to havestrength, you have to have
stamina, you have to know how totake a hit and you have to, you
know, roll all that into onewith only a 45 second to one
(31:53):
minute break in between rounds,one with only a 45 second to one
minute break in between rounds.
So I think there was a timewhen boxing was more popular,
that those, all of your eliteathletes would gravitate towards
that sport automatically.
I know that shifted quite a bitover the past generation or so,
but you still have to be agreat athlete.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Okay, what about you, mike?
What's your opinion on proboxers and their athletic
abilities?
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, same thing.
They're all great athletes, forsure.
I think one of the things thatseparates team sports from
individual sports like boxing,is you have to know how to win.
If you're on the defensive sideof the ball, you have to know
how to win right, like, ifyou're on the defensive side of
the ball, you have to know howto do your job right.
You have to know your skillplayer, whereas boxing, like,
(32:42):
you have to know in real timewhere you are, like nobody's
telling you what the scorecardis.
You have to know what thatscorecard is.
You have to know how to win andhow to you know either dig
yourself out of the hole or hangon for however many rounds, if
you know you're not going toknock the guy out right, because
(33:03):
sometimes it's not in yourarsenal.
Um, so I I think you know allof the physical traits are huge,
but you also have to be veryintelligent about the game,
whereas that's not supernecessary in a skilled position
(33:23):
of a team sport.
You just go out there and doyour job, whereas in boxing, you
are in total control of yourown outcome.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
TJ, what are you saying about professional boxers
here?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I think that you just take it back.
Boxing is like the man's game,right?
You can probably trace thatback to the beginning of time,
where stand in front of you,don't move.
First person to go down isthat's who loses, right?
So the mental toughness ittakes to be a boxer, to be able
to just do that, to be able tosay, hey, my body's on the line
(34:01):
here and I'm sitting here tryingto defend myself and also knock
out the guy that's in front ofme.
But they talk about how boxersgo and take ballet.
They need to know how to usetheir feet.
They need to know how to haveamazing balance.
Their core strength has to beable to deliver a blow and also
withstand a blow.
It's just, you know the dodgingthe, the speed that these guys
(34:23):
throw punches at.
I think again, tv doesn't do itjustice, as how fast these guys
actually are.
Um, and you know, with theirretraction skills and things,
you know their ability to throwin, bring back a punch.
So, yeah, I think that thething that devalued the boxing
is maybe the rise of MMA haspeople have said, oh, it's more
(34:44):
interesting to see people, youknow, do takedowns and things
like that.
But I mean, boxing was thenumber one thing through, like
the Great Depression.
Boxing was the number one thingfor a long, long time for a
reason.
So, um, you know and, and, andthere's a lot of people that try
and, oh, I can fight, I canfight, and then you go step in
the boxing ring and they don'tlast very long.
(35:04):
So, yeah, there's justappreciation that maybe has been
lost over the years with withboxing for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Sure, and and you know, matt knows this, most
people that know me know this,I'm a huge boxing fan.
We've had on Kelly Pavlik onthe show.
We've had on the HandsomeHitman Josh Himes.
We've had a lot of MMA fighters.
Just had a chance to do thewell, I guess it was last summer
.
But the Tyson-Paul fight.
I think the thing people don'trealize about boxers and to TJ's
(35:32):
point, the ballet, the cardiothat they have to go through,
matt's point, the very shortrest periods, like, if you want
to know what's intense, go lookat a boxer's workout during camp
.
You know other sports willmimic those workouts to get
themselves ready.
No boxer is doing an nflworkout.
An nfl player is doing a boxingworkout, though for his cardio,
(35:56):
you know, and his stamina youknow.
And the fact that you got to,you got to be able to weightlift
, you got to know angles.
You have to have that hand eyecoordination because the thing
is, you know to.
To Mike's point, you can behidden.
Right If you're on a team,right If you, if you're a weak
link in that ring, it's just youand you and the guy in front of
you who's trying to knock yourhead off, literally you know.
(36:17):
So I think you know, pro boxersdefinitely don't get enough
credit for being athletic, youknow.
And yet to TJ's point, you'veseen, you know, pro athletes try
to go in the ring with boxersand it usually hasn't hasn't
worked out too well.
Nate Robinson, so you know,when he, when he went in for
that.
(36:37):
So I think I think if youreally want to see something
special, just as a sports fanright, you're talking about
great athletes go watch.
Like the flyweights, uh, youknow, in boxing, their hand
speed like prime mannypacquiao's hand speed and
footwork was unbelievable, um,you know, with that, you know.
And for people that say,someone like the super
heavyweights Anthony Joshua, um,you know, deontay Wilder, um,
(37:02):
tyson, uh, fury, that they'renot athletic, go watch those
guys too, um, you know, cause Idon't think you want to go on
the ring with them, uh, either.
And if you want to seesomething even cooler, look up
Mike Tyson's workouts when hewould do his strength exercises
with his neck, when he would dohis neck rolls in the ring.
So most people couldn't do thateither, from just an athletic
(37:24):
standpoint.
So one of the next ones we'regoing to go into Olympic
wrestling, right, olympicwrestlers.
People look at Olympicwrestlers and they just usually
think, wow, those are some justbig guys.
Well, those Olympic wrestlersare pretty athletic too and
they're pretty tough guys.
For people that don't know,kurt Angle WWF wrestler WWE now,
(37:45):
but people don't realize thatKurt Angle was a multiple time
college national champion.
Kurt Angle also won an Olympicgold medal with a fractured neck
as well.
So, matt, going off of thisOlympic wrestlers, to be an
Olympic gold medalist, do youhave to be more athletic or more
physically tough?
(38:06):
What's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I would say athletic.
You know, once you get to thatlevel, everybody's tough um.
You, you know, once you get tothat level, everybody's tough um
.
You have to have mentaltoughness and physical toughness
to succeed at a high level atany sport really, um, but
there's a huge difference, uh,you know.
Not to uh hijack this, I'lljust tell a story real quick.
(38:28):
I was playing with some, uh,when I was playing football in
college.
I mean some college buddies, um, one of my best college
friends' brother wrestled atKent.
We went to go see a Division Icollege wrestling match and
watch his brother.
We all just looked at eachother like holy moly, these guys
are way more athletic, waybetter at us than anything if
(38:53):
you say athletic or toughness.
So yeah, I think athleticismmore than toughness.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Okay, okay, Mike, to be in a gold medal champion in
wrestling, in Olympic wrestling,do you have to be tougher or
more athletic?
Like what is that one factorthat takes you over the top in
this?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Athletic athletic for sure.
And I think the thing that likeathletic for sure and I think
the thing that like kind ofspeaks to that the most is just
look at how dominant wrestlersare in the mma right.
Tony ferguson in the mma isvery tough, too tough.
He gets hit in the face andjust keeps going.
(39:34):
He's a zombie right, and thatto the detriment of his mental
health.
But wrestlers have, you know,as wrestling has kind of gone
through some pretty tough timesinternationally and uh, at the
at the world stage and even inthe college stage, it's, it's,
it's hard to, you know, stayrelevant, um, as a sport right
(39:58):
now, which is very sad.
Mike, the wrestling coach atspire would really get on me for
that.
But those guys are allunbelievably tough.
They're animals, they'reabsolute animals, but they're
pivoting and trying to, you know, save their sport and they
don't have to change very muchat all to be unbelievably
(40:19):
successful in another fightingsport, because they will just
grab you and move you where theywant, and it is.
You give a handshake tosomebody who does manual labor
for a living and you're like,wow, that dude's strong.
And then you handshake awrestler and he might lift you
(40:41):
off the ground by accident.
Those guys are a differentlevel of just your strength.
They may not power clean 400pounds, but they will move
people and things how they want,and they're all fruits.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Okay, tj, what are you saying about this?
So?
Speaker 3 (41:07):
at Notre Dame.
When I was there, our wrestlingteam won the national
championship multiple times.
So I got to be around a lot ofamazing, unbelievably great
collegiate athletic wrestlersand the thing that I noticed is
they're all great athletes butnot all of them had their head
on screen.
(41:28):
Wrestling is a place whereyou're not supposed to, but I
saw guys that could, you know,stand and do a backflip, a
standing backflip, things likethat, but then they go in a
wrestling match and they losetheir head.
They lose.
You know what is the game plan,what am I supposed to do?
And then you see a kid that'sjust.
Oh, you know that.
I know a nice kid.
You know he's an okay athlete.
Obviously it takes to be agreat athlete, but he was so
(41:49):
smart, so good at what he wastrying to execute that that's
what got him to being a nationalchampion Again.
All sports, I don't care.
Whatever sport you do, you haveto be athletic to be great at
that sport.
But I think for me, when youhave the lack of discipline, the
(42:10):
lack of hey, I can take thisdrill off.
You know that separates you.
That separates the people thatare very good, great and elite.
It's just how far are youwilling to go and how focused
are you willing to be to be ableto execute the goal that you
set for yourself?
And I've seen so many greatathletes just fall to the.
(42:30):
This is a little too hard, youknow so, to me, I think, to be
able to do that.
You talk about Kurt Angle withthe broken neck.
You tell me his athleticismwasn't hindered with a broken
neck and all of a sudden, hisyou know intestinal fortitude
just took over and said hey, no,I'm winning this, this is for
me to win, so Sure sure, I thinkyou guys make all great points
(42:51):
on it.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm going to make just three quick points and then
we're going to move on to ourlast three questions.
You know.
First thing is, to your point,I think everyone is athletic.
When you're at the top top ofthe game and when you're in the
Olympics, I think you're sophysically beat up that then it
just becomes who is tougher,right, who is tougher at this
point?
Whether it's swimming, crosscountry or sorry, track and
(43:15):
field, you know, whatever it maybe, wrestling, it's just who is
mentally tougher and physicallycan push through this.
The next thing, though, I willsay is you know the toughness
part and, TJ, correct me if I'mwrong I think you were there
with Joeyey davis, um, duringthat time at ndc.
For people that don't know, joeydavis is one of three all-time
(43:38):
undefeated national champions.
Mike, I'm sure, has heard allthese stories.
Uh, being at ndc um, joey wasthe only division.
Two all-time undefeatednational, four-time national
champion ever.
Joey davis, I think his lastyear went up two divisions from
his weight and won the nationalchampionship.
Now, sure was that athleticability.
(43:58):
Yeah, for sure Was that morebeing mentally and physically
tough.
You know absolutely.
But to Matt's point on this, ifyou want to go see some guys
who are big, strong, fast, gowatch division one wrestlers, um
, go at it.
Even the guys who, who aren'tthe best, who aren't the Cal
Sanderson's of the world of,aren't the Kurt Angles, go watch
(44:21):
.
Even the guy who's the backuphundred, you know 89 pound, you
know wrestler.
Those guys will take your headoff um, every day of the week
and twice on Sundays.
So, uh, yeah, if you want to gosee something impressive,
definitely go see some collegewrestlers.
Which brings me into thisstudio wrestling.
For people who may say what isstudio wrestling?
(44:42):
Well, it's WWE, formerly knownas WWF, and WCW.
People knock a lot of theseathletes who have done this.
Now, we've seen and all of usare different ages and we've
seen this over the years A lotof pro athletes go into
wrestling later on.
You've had on Kurt Angle, right.
You had on the rock who played,you know, college football, and
(45:05):
in the CFL um, mongo McMichael,who was the starting D tackle
for the 85 bears, you know.
You've seen the Paulul um, theolder paul brother, logan paul
with the boxing crossover.
You've seen rob gronkowski alot of different guys, right.
But people want to knock thesewrestlers and say they're
unathletic to me.
And I'm going to start this oneoff.
(45:26):
I think people are wrong whenthey say that, because these men
and women are some of thebiggest, strongest human beings
in all of sports.
You go back to Andre the Giant7'4" 500 pounds could lift a car
off the ground, and that's nota story, that's a fact.
People have seen him do it, youknow.
You look at someone like HulkHogan, who was, you know 6'8",
(45:50):
300 pounds.
You know Thunder Lips and RockyIII.
You know it was just a physicalspecimen.
Though you have these big,strong, huge human beings
contorting their bodies crazyways.
You know jumping off, um, youknow table, or jumping on the
tables hitting each other withchairs and stuff's.
To me, you know very, veryathletic.
(46:10):
There ain't a lot of people whocould do that stuff, but matt,
in your opinion.
You've probably seen prowrestling the longest here.
You know what's your take onthese studio wrestlers and their
athletic ability.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I think they're unreal athletes.
And you know this is right inmy wheelhouse I love wrestling,
all things.
You know grew up after schoolwith the AWA on early days, espn
, the NWA on weekends on TBS andthen WWF all mixed through and
I think a lot of people thatknock the athleticism on
(46:42):
wrestling are maybe a little bityoung, because that was kind of
by design.
Vince McMahon kind of wanted totake some athleticism out of
wrestling and make the guys asbig and as strong and as stiff
and you know throwing guysaround as possible.
And you know, you look at andit's going on 30 years ago.
(47:03):
But you know, you look at ECW.
That was around about 30 years,25, 30 years ago, where they
were allowed to showcase.
You know their athleticism andit was amazing and even still to
this day, you know, startingabout probably for the last 40
years.
If you really want to seeathleticism on display, look at
New Japan Pro Wrestling and JPW.
(47:24):
That is amazing to see theathleticism that they display on
that.
So I will sing the praises ofprofessional wrestlers being
freak athletes all day long.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, okay, mike, what are you saying on this?
Speaker 4 (47:39):
All right.
So from an entertainmentperspective, I never was into
pro wrestling studio wrestling Ididn't get it.
And from an entertainment valuepiece like that show, it's not
for me right as athletes.
I have a former athlete of minefrom William Mary, troy
(48:03):
Yearwood.
He goes by Jamar Hampton nowfor WWE.
Next, he is by far the craziestathlete I've ever seen, by far.
I've seen him on his Instagram.
He has all of his gym stuffSeated to 60-inch vertical box
(48:27):
jump.
I think he got an official46-inch standing vertical test.
I've seen him do snatch gripdeadlifts with over 500 pounds
for sets of six and above.
When he does pull-ups he pullshis hips to the bar.
(48:48):
He weighs nothing and he's nowin pro wrestling.
Right, I would watch him for theentertainment value of that is
the most athletic human I'veever seen in my life.
He did a NFL combine test atWilliam and Mary.
(49:11):
He was a thrower there.
He wasn't.
He wasn't a football player andhe would have been in the top
5% of these combine tests justbecause his 40-yard dash was
super quick.
I don't have it off the top ofmy head but I know he jumped
like 12'6 in standing.
(49:31):
Broad jump, the standingvertical in college.
Broad jump.
The standing vertical incollege was 42.
When he went to grad school itwas 46.
I mean, the man is the mostathletic person I've ever seen
and he has always been justjacked, ripped to the gills.
He looks the part, he fits theWWE.
(49:52):
He's an insane athlete and Iguess all of them are like that
okay, tj.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
What are you saying about this?
Speaker 3 (50:03):
yeah, I grew up a huge wrestling fan, so this is,
uh, this is easy for me, um, andsummer slams on tonight for a
night too.
So, um, for wwe.
But again, you look at how many, especially you know matt was
talking about back in, you know,70s, 80s, 90s a lot of people
try to transition from otherprofessional sports into
(50:24):
professional wrestling andfailed miserably, you know, and
they tried and they said thatthey just couldn't keep up with
what was going on.
But it also showed you kind ofbrought up Kurt Angle, a guy
that took that and transitionfrom amateur wrestling to
professional wrestling and didit so well.
People try to follow him andstill couldn't keep up the way
that Kurt Angle did it.
(50:44):
But, um, you know, there thereis the entertainment value of it
, there's the show business sideof it, there's the hey.
We want to, you know, makepeople feel the emotion that
they're trying to go through.
But they still got to be ableto protect themselves, they
still got to be able to put on,um, you know, a conflict.
They have to make it look likea conflict, make it look like a
(51:05):
fight and still be able toperform all the things they need
to perform.
They describe them as liveaction stuntmen.
They don't get a second take,they don't get to go back.
Oh, I fell on my head, let mego and get the crash pad.
We got the crash pad, do itagain.
They don't have that.
So that's where the athleticismreally speaks to them.
(51:28):
And as you're going through thenames you're listing, I'm
thinking of the two thattransitioned from amateur
wrestling.
So Bobby Lashley was one and hewent into combat wrestling and
did a great job doing combatwrestling and he went into
professional wrestling.
He still great job doing combatwrestling and he went into
professional wrestling.
He still said professionalwrestling is harder than the
combat sport, just being able todo that.
(51:49):
And then Brock Lesnar when youlook at his, he said he did,
obviously, he did amateurwrestling at an extremely high
level in Minnesota, did a greatjob.
And then he said I'll go try toplay football, didn't make it
out of spring training, um, andhe, he as much as he said uh,
you know, football was harderthan professional wrestling.
(52:11):
It just shows that that's thetype of athlete professional
wrestling can produce, um, attimes.
So, uh, yeah, these guys I mean, and the cool thing about
professional wrestling big,small men, women they're able to
go and do it.
But it does take a specialathlete, because not anybody can
just go and say, oh, I want todo this for fun, let me go do it
, because you end up gettinghurt, you end up doing damage to
(52:34):
yourself.
So, yeah, no, I got a lot ofrespect for them.
And again, just like everysport, if you're a professional
in any sport that you do, youare at the top of the game in
that, in that field.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
Sure, one name I'm going to throw out there for
everybody to check out, becausehe was a college wrestler.
He was in WCW for a while, Ibelieve, with Ric Flair, um, and
then he went into the original,the original UFC Dan the beast
Severn.
So watch Dan the beast Severn'sMMA fights when he would and he
was a and he was a wrestler andhe would just grab people and
(53:07):
he would just start bodyslamming them on their head and
those guys were out cold.
But he did the original UFCwhen it was a lot tougher WCW
and college wrestling.
So two questions left for youguys, and we're talking about
some of the greatest athletes ofall time.
Now this is a simple yes or noquestion.
When you're talking greatestathletes ever not NBA players
(53:31):
greatest athletes ever, isLeBron James a top 10 greatest
athlete in the history of sports?
Matt, yes, okay.
Mike, yes, okay.
Tj of sports matt, yes, okay.
Mike, yes, hey.
Tj, yes, I have to.
Okay, okay, I was reallycurious on that.
(53:53):
Um, you know, because when youreally start thinking about it,
right, great nba player, butthen you guys start thinking
we'll leave it on thiscliffhanger.
Is he more accomplished thanWill Chamberlain?
Is he more accomplished as anathlete than Wayne Gretzky?
Could he do what Wayne Gretzkydid?
Could he do what Mike Tyson did?
(54:15):
Could he do what Jerry Rice did?
You know, could he do whatMichael Phelps did?
You know you got to think aboutthose things too.
Could he do what Michael Phelpsdid?
You know you got to think aboutthose things too, but I, you
know he's arguably there.
All right, final question, andI'm going to let you guys think
about this, I'm going to namemine and my reasons behind it.
Who are your top two athletesof all time, regardless of
(54:38):
generation and sport ever.
And I'll give you my two righthere.
We'll see if Coach Larkinappreciates this first one.
I'm going to go with the legend,jim Thorpe, the only man in
sports history to win thedecathlon and the pentathlon in
the 1912 Olympics with twodifferent shoes on during that
(54:58):
time.
Two different shoes, not thesame shoes, two different shoes.
He was also a professionalballroom dancer.
He was also a professionalbaseball player, professional
football player.
He also was the firstcommissioner of the NFL.
So I actually got a chance tovisit Jim Thorpe, pennsylvania,
the old Mauchunk town, got achance to visit Jim Thorpe, see
(55:21):
his memorial out there and thehistory behind him Arguably
greatest athlete ever.
I don't think anyone could everdo what he did.
Even if you take the othersports out of there, there's no
way the average person canbecome a national champion
competitor in ballroom dancingas well.
You want to talk about hard?
Go, try to do that.
(55:41):
My second greatest athlete everis definitely Wilt Chamberlain.
What he did later on in life asan athlete was probably more
impressive than what he did asan NBA player.
To be a professional indoorvolleyball, the marathon running
, the weightlifting.
To do that post your retirementin the NBA is unbelievable,
(56:08):
matt.
Who are your top two greatestathletes of all time?
Speaker 2 (56:11):
I immediately, when you asked the question,
immediately jumped to Jim Brownum, just with the eye test, as
well as lacrosse and the NFL.
Um, and my second one, eventhough he's not nearly as
decorated as probably all theguys that you're you guys are
going to mention or whateverelse.
It's just, once again, it's theeye test and you know um,
(56:32):
olympic bobsled team uh,sprinter, hurdler, uh, just a
freak athlete, uh, probably thatI've seen in person.
Herschel Walker Probably couldhave won the Heisman as an
18-year-old if they allowed himto.
Just the best.
If you're talking pure athletethat I've seen with my own eyes
in my lifetime, it's probablyhim.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
Okay, and people forget Herschel Walker got into
MMA in his late 40s and early50s as well.
He was doing that.
So those are really good ones,Matt.
Those are really really goodones, Mike.
What are you saying here?
Speaker 4 (57:10):
To not negate anything that anybody else has
said, but also to not repeat OneI'm going to throw out.
That's just real off the wallsand probably won't get mentioned
on this podcast.
Real off the walls and probablywon't get mentioned on this
podcast Very often in general isEddie Merckx, port-au-france
(57:42):
winner, I believe five timesback, king of the Mountains
yellow jersey and the greenjersey, so sprint jerseys, and
he would have won the youngestrider jerseys as well.
He was dominant for two decadeson the bike and so I think he's
(58:04):
the Wayne Gretzky of cyclingwhere it's kind of like, yeah,
it's him and nobody else, andeven Lance, I think, would admit
that, and then I don't thinkanybody has or not very many
people who know cycling verywell put Lance above Eddie
(58:26):
merckx, which is seven time uh,toward franz way, um, and then
another kind of curveball.
But who's kind of?
You know, really writing hername in the history books right
now is katie ledecky.
I mean, she has what?
The top 30-something times everin the 800 free.
(58:51):
It's her, then her 30 times andthen somebody else.
So it's like you know, arethose the two greatest athletes
of all time?
They're certainly the mostdominant um in their own sport.
Um, does that translate toother sports?
I don't know, but I wanted toput out those names.
(59:12):
Not to.
That's a step on the other toes, but those two pop into my head
is like pure dominance in their, in their, in their niche.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
Sure, no, I mean, that was great.
And you know what I thought wewanted to do this show?
Because we wanted to talk topeople who really maybe don't
know the NHL, who maybe don'tknow Michael Phelps in the
Olympic sports, who maybe don'tremember Will Chamberlain or
Herschel Walker, know much aboutcycling, maybe don't know
anything about studio wrestling.
You know, we want to informpeople a lot about this because
(59:43):
there's so many great athletesand just because we pick two, it
doesn't mean they're betterthan anybody else, just our
opinion.
We're just ranting on Ryan Homerants about it, right, so you
know, we're just kind of givingit.
So, no, thank you for pointingthose out, because a lot of
people who don't know cyclingwant to know that.
I could never name anothercycler behind Lance Armstrong,
and now I feel more informedabout it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
So, um, TJ, who are your top two of all time.
I'm a victim of my age here.
Um, so my number one, I wasalways been told my whole life
Bo Jackson, right it just youtry to think about the stories
that everybody's told about, uh,you know, oh, they they did.
Everybody's told about.
(01:00:25):
You know, oh, they did.
The laser, you know he ran a 40yard dash and the laser had him
at, you know, 413.
But the handhelds had him atlike 397.
And they had to open the door inthe back of the gym because he
wasn't going to be able to stopbecause he was running that fast
and just the people that playedagainst him, and then to be
(01:00:45):
able to go and just kind of Playbaseball.
You know, yeah, I was OKbaseball.
You know, I was just an allstar, it's fine.
So just those things are what,just what I've been told growing
up.
So I kind of, you know, Ibought into it and I, you know,
I read about it and it just hehad me convinced.
I did hear about Jim Thorpe,which was an amazing story, and
obviously the movie about himand everything which was.
(01:01:07):
You know, we only get the tipof the iceberg.
Obviously, we never saw himcompete.
So.
But my second one is JackieRobinson.
So Jackie Robinson, throughoutcollege he was, he was a four
sport varsity All-American.
So just to think about Iplaying one sport was hard
(01:01:27):
enough, but to be able to go andbe four, so he did football,
basketball, baseball and trackand field and he was an
all-american in all of them.
And then he said I guess Igotta go join the army, you know
.
So he left and joined theservice and then came back and
was still able to do the thingsthat he was able to do for
baseball, you know, obviously,as a baseball player.
(01:01:47):
But, um, when you talk aboutgreatest athletes, I think that
you talk about the athleticism,but the impact too, and his
impact obviously is everlasting.
So, uh, that plays a role forme too sure?
Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
no, those are all great points all three of you
guys um you made, and thank youso much for coming on this
episode.
I think this was a lot of fun,uh, hearing from guys who played
college sports, who havecoached high school and college
sports, who, like history, youknow, are very well rounded in
the sports realm.
I think this was a lot of funand very informative for people
as well.
Um, you know, mike Matt TJ,thank you so much for being on
(01:02:22):
and thank you for everyone fortuning in.
Make sure you go ahead anddownload the episode and check
out all these guys on ourprevious episodes, on their
individual episodes that they'vebeen on or the other
roundtables that they've been onpreviously too.
(01:02:42):
So, on behalf of Ride HomeRants, this is Vinny signing off
and we will see you next week.
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home
Rants podcast.
This is your special guest,host Fitty, and today I'm
filling in for Mike Bono, as webring you the greatest athletes
ever roundtable with threephenomenal guests bringing in
the big three.
And notice, ain't LeBron Jamesbringing in the big three?
This is the Ride Home Rants bigthree right here, with special
(00:24):
guest host Fitty turning the micon these questions today.
So before we get into the show,though, make sure you peep all
of our sponsors in the pre-rolland post-roll.
They're all small businessowners.
They're great supporters ofthis show.
They help make this show goalong with all of our listeners
and these special guests whohave been on for individual
shows and roundtables.
Today we bring you the big threein here who have been involved
(00:46):
in sports on multiple levels,whether it's college athletics,
it's college coaching, highschool coaching, educating.
They're going to give you a lotof great insight to the
greatest athletes ever as webreak down a lot of great
questions here for you.
So I'd like to introduce myguests Matt, mike and TJ.
They're going to go through,introduce themselves, guys, and
then you're going to telleverybody what your favorite
(01:07):
subject in high school was, andthen are you a fan of fishing?
And if you are a fan, where'syour favorite place to go
fishing at?
So we'll start with you, matt.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, my name is Matt .
I'm happy to be here.
My favorite subject in schoolwas either advanced physical
education or weightlifting andno other no others in the
running and absolutely lovefishing but actually love
watching my son fishing morethan I actually like to fish.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, spoken like a true proud dad right there, matt
.
So looking like a true prouddad right there.
So let's go to Mike.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah, so favorite subject was probably AP Psych.
I jumpstarted my whole careerand then not a big fisherman,
but can't say no to a boat day.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Okay, okay, and TJ.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
TJ Lett.
Glad to be back In high school.
My favorite subject was history.
I just love the differentopinions and the different ways
that you can go about looking atit, trying to learn from it,
trying to dissect it, and youknow, just you know, going
through all the things that'shappened in the past and trying
to be better in the future.
But I can count on one hand thetimes I've held a fishing rod.
(02:23):
So I'm not a big fisherman atall, but definitely boats.
Boats are great.
I love being on a boat and, youknow, just hanging out.
So I'm halfway there.
We'll see what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, okay, my favorite subject in school, man,
I really liked gym class.
Gym class was a lot of fun.
We got to do swimming as well.
So I grew up um being in a in apool like.
We were taught that from anearly age in school.
Um really like those gymclasses, though, man.
We used to have the wiffle balltournaments and the soccer
tournaments.
Um play flag football on on, uh, on the hill outside um.
(02:57):
So a lot of good times, a lotof good times.
So probably favorite subject waswas gym, um, and then no, I am
not a fisherman.
I do not like touching fish andI do not have the heart to pull
a fish out of the water andwatch it die on shore.
So just, unfortunately not mything.
But I do respect fishermenbecause that is a way way harder
(03:18):
endeavor than what people think.
So it kind of leads us intothen these questions, right?
So, matt, we're going to startwith you on this, and then we're
going to go Mike and then we'regoing to go TJ.
But you have the NFL, the NHL,the NBA and MLB.
How would you rank them fromthe most athletic individuals to
(03:51):
the least athletic individuals?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Wow, you're leading off with the tough ones right
here.
But you know, I think all foursports you get to see
athleticism on full display.
The NFL I'd probably ranknumber one because it's very
specialized and very unique perposition and skills.
So you need to have specializedniche athleticism.
Obviously the NBA, but I mean,up until my son started playing
(04:22):
travel hockey and getting intoice hockey, I tell you you got
to be a good athlete to play inthe NHL too, because geez, oh
man, then I don't know, it'shard.
You got to try to hit a 99 milean hour fastball too.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So I don't know, I'd probably stick with my initial
initial right off the batthoughts of I'd go NFL, nba, nhl
, major League Baseball, if youput me to it.
Okay.
Okay, mike, what are you sayingabout this?
Yeah, so I, I think nfl has gotto be at the top.
Um, those guys are freaks.
Um, just, you see so many peoplewho never make it in the nhl or
, sorry, the NFL that are justphenomenal athletes and they
make it in another sport.
Right, they'll transition andthey'll be almost at the same
(05:13):
level in something that theydidn't even really focus on.
Um, then you know, I'm going toflip it just a little bit.
Uh, with nhl being second andnba being third.
Um, just, I think I gained alot of appreciation for the nhl.
Uh, with my cousins playinghockey, and every so often I'll
(05:37):
see a wayne gretzky uh thingcome up on, you know instagram
reels or something, where he'sjust dusting some soccer player
um in a sprint and like somekind of performance thing.
Nba, obviously, I mean that'swhere it gets like from.
Like, you can just be a freakathlete and then learn some
skill, learn the skills.
(05:58):
But then nba and mlb I mean theskill to be, be in a
three-pointer consistently andthe skill to even look at a
fastball is insane.
We have a track guy now who'sbeen embroiled in some
controversy but he keeps postingthat he's joining the MLB.
(06:21):
I'm looking at his posts andI'm like Fred man, what are you
doing?
The second, you see, he won'teven see.
He won't even see.
100 mile per hour fastball Iwould if I was given 1,000
attempts.
If I swung the bat 1,000 times,I would hit zero.
(06:43):
100 mile.
Anhour runs right down themiddle Absolutely none.
So still freak athletes forsure, but I think it does have
to rank fourth on that list.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Okay, now our resident baseball guy here, tj.
What do you got to say aboutall this?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Here's a surprise Baseball will be last for me me,
actually, for the least amountof athleticism.
Here's why you got some ofthese big, large power hitters.
That's what they're good at.
They're good at power hitting,but if you tell them to, hey,
we're gonna run a mile or we'regonna do a sprint, they're not
gonna be able to do that.
A high jump.
There most of them are quickbut it's not.
(07:22):
You can't compare theathleticism between them and
like an offensive lineman or adefensive lineman that have the
same body type.
So, no, baseball is last.
You don't need the athleticism.
The skill set's so specificthat you can not, you can be a
bad athlete but be a greatbaseball player.
So, yeah, that'll be last.
Actually for me, um, number one,I will say, as the nfl, they
(07:44):
just the things that they'reable to do with their bodies,
how quick they actually are.
I think because they're all sofast we don't realize how fast
they actually are unless we wereright next to them.
So, um, but you hear about thehow, their high jump athletes,
long jump athletes, and highschool, high school track
athlete, uh, you know, allAmerican, you know a hundred
(08:08):
yard, a hundred meter, uh, meter, sprint tapes.
So the NFL has definitely haveprobably the top athletes, and
then I'm going to go to the NHL.
The ability to skate already isan athletic movement that is not
common for most people and Ithink that we grow up.
Maybe it's just so because howwe are in America, we grew up
shooting basketballs, we grew upjumping, we grew up doing those
things.
But skating is such anunnatural movement.
You have to be an athlete to beable to have that type of
(08:30):
balance without your feet and beable to get up and down.
And they go so quick too.
It's unbelievable theirreaction times.
So NHL will be second, the NBAthird.
Again, they jump through theroof.
I just don't think weunderstand how athletic they are
.
You're on a court side seat andthings like that.
And then, like I said, the MLB.
The skills are special, theability to hit is special, the
(08:52):
ability to throw is special.
But you can also have AlejandroKirk, catcher for the Toronto
Blue Jays is 5'7", 240 pounds,and he's a professional baseball
player that can barely move,but he's great at what he does,
okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I'm going to give mine here.
I'm going to work backwards.
I'm going to say MLB for sureNot that there's not great
athletes there, and we're goingto talk about this a little bit
later but I'm going to say that.
I'm going to say the NBA, I'mgoing to say the NFL is second,
I'm going to say hockey is first, and TJ kind of touched upon
these reasons.
But I want you to think aboutthis.
Think about how athletic atennis player is.
With their stop-start lateralmovement.
(09:31):
They're probably quicker thanNFL wide receivers.
Now think about that tennisplayer doing that on skates,
moving side to side and front toback and stopping on a dime on
skates.
If you put NFL players inskates, most of them fall on
their face.
If you tell an NHL hockeyplayer to go run into somebody
(09:53):
as hard as they can and try totake them out on grass, they're
going to do it.
So you got to look at it thatway too.
More hockey players willsucceed being skill guys in
football because of theirathletic ability than NFL
players will succeed being skillguys in football because of
their athletic ability.
Then NFL players will be lesssuccessful on the ice because
they do not have thecoordination to stop and start
on a dime in skates because it'snot a natural movement, kind of
(10:17):
what TJ talked about.
But it's close, all right.
So number two here.
The second question I want toget everybody's opinion on this.
The Olympic great, michaelPhelps, is considered one of the
greatest athletes of all timefor his plethora of gold medals.
In the pool ranking, you know,or coming in, you know, his body
type is six foot five, enormouswingspan, you know.
(10:40):
His cardiovascular endurance isis one of the best, if not best
, probably, in modern history ofathletics.
Where does Michael Phelps rankas an all-time overall greatest
athlete, matt?
What's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think he's in the top 10.
He's got to be in the top 10.
You know it's hard to arguewith everything you just said.
So you know, uh, when peoplethink of and especially now as
time goes by, when they think ofOlympic swimming, they think of
Michael Phelps, just likeprobably all of us we're going
to touch to later all of ourother top athletes in all these
(11:17):
sports.
So his name immediately comesto mind.
So, yeah, I'd put them in thetop 10.
I mean, mean, I don't know,we'll probably get into later on
where everybody fits where.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So I'll just say top 10 okay, okay, coach larkin,
what do you say about this?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I like that answer.
I like that answer a lot.
Top 10.
I mean his, his accolades justfrom the metal total, his
longevity in the sport and thefact that, like, his skills are
so transferable out of the waterfrom the athletic perspective,
like man does not make lacticacid like a normal human being.
(11:53):
You put him on a bike, you puthim in endurance running, you
put him in anything where he'sable to, where recovery is the
limiting factor, he's gonnacrush so many people.
So, like, yeah, does he everdevelop the skill to, you know,
(12:14):
catch a one-handed uh pass inthe end zone and toe tap out of
bounds in the nfl, bro, whoknows right?
But but his pure genetics forbeing an elite athlete, he's
going to out-recover everybody,and at the top level.
That's what you need.
So I like that top 10 answerman.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Okay, okay, tj, what are you saying about this?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I completely agree.
And the minute that, what cameto my mind was how elite are you
at what you do?
And obviously he's at the topof that list when it comes to
swimming and history, just in myopinion.
So that has to account forsomething.
There's been millions of peoplethat have tried to do what he
does and can't do it as well ashe does it.
So now you start to take in.
(13:01):
What does that mean?
That means that he had thededication to be able to perfect
that skill.
He had the mental capacity tobe able to withstand the ups and
downs and the hour-longpractices.
You hear about his meal planwhere it's like 15,000 calories
before noon or somethingridiculous, to be able to keep
that um, keep himself in prime,elite, olympic shape.
(13:24):
And for as many people thatnever even make it out of
qualifiers for him to go and runthe gauntlet as well as he did,
um, you know it goes for, ithas to go for something so he's
able to use his body, his body,extremely well.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So top 10 for sure is is an easy, easy, easy lock
okay, okay, now one of the nextguys we're going to talk about
is probably one of my favoriteum professional athletes of all
time.
I think he's probably um one ofthe top five athletes if of all
time, if not potentially numberone wilt chamberlain.
Wilt chamberllain was a pro NBAplayer of an offensive force
(14:00):
that the NBA has still neverseen.
Wilt Chamberlain retired fromthe NBA and became a
professional indoor volleyballplayer and a Hall of Famer in
indoor volleyball, standing atseven feet one.
He also became a marathonrunner in his 50s.
At 45 years old.
Wilt Chamberlain was offered anNBA contract after being
(14:21):
retired, and there is storiesout there that when Magic
Johnson came into the league in1980, a retired Wilt Chamberlain
came in and beat the livingshit out of Magic Johnson in
practice and humbled him, andthen Magic Johnson thus went on
and won an nba finals mvp thatyear.
Will chamberlain also was adynamic track guy in college as
(14:45):
a sprinter, jumper, um andthrower.
If he's like a 57 foot shotputter, 10.9 in the 100 yard
dash over 50 foot triple jumperprobably most impressive, though
, um, for us old guys here will.
Will Chamberlain played in Conanthe Destroyer with Andre the
Giant and Arnold Schwarzeneggerand you think about Andre the
(15:06):
Giant.
For people that don't know him,he was 7'4", 500 pounds.
Rest in peace, you know.
And Arnold Schwarzeneggerprobably two of the strongest
human beings ever.
They both said Will Chamberlainwas stronger than both of them.
He could curl over 500 pounds.
Now it's according to ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
So, with all that being saidand what we know about Will
Chamberlain, where does WillChamberlain rank as one of the
(15:29):
most dominant and athleticpeople of all time?
Matt, what would you say about?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
this.
I mean, the stats don't lie, andeverything you said is true.
Like I said, he's got to be upthere.
I think most of the people youhave in here I think I'm the
oldest one on the round table,so thanks for having an old guy
on here you know, it's reallydifficult when you start
thinking about this, and we'regoing to be on the show of
(15:56):
people that you've only heardstories of or you've seen
highlight films of, that younever really got to see in
person.
So I kind of almost feel like Iwas robbed of not being able to
appreciate an athlete like WiltChamberlain, you know, in real
time.
But I mean everything you said.
I mean he's got to be up there.
I mean, you know, if you justname a mount rushmore of nba
(16:22):
talents, he'd be up there, um,but if you're talking overall
athletes, he's got to be theretoo.
But, uh, you know, you shouldremember, uh, luau sindor was in
enter the dragon though, too,and you're talking about movies.
I, I thought you're gonna gothat.
I thought you're gonna go thatroute, because watching him, uh,
uh, kicking bruce lee waspretty impressive too.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So yeah, okay, that was a good one.
I forgot, I forgot about that.
Um, you know, coach larkin,you're a, you're a track guy,
you know, uh, you really.
But knowing about willchamberlain's prowess and that
you know where does, willchamberlain rank those the
greatest athlete of all time inyour opinion?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
hey, again, I feel like as we go through like these
you know greats it's gonna belike, oh crap, I forgot about
him.
This top 10 list is gonnaexpand real quick.
Um, but like the biggest knockon will chamberlain's career was
that, did he score?
Did he really score 100?
(17:16):
And it's like, yeah, maybe heonly scored 93, but that's still
ridiculous.
It's like, yeah, maybe he onlyscored 93, but that's still
ridiculous.
It's like, ah, he might nothave scored 100, but it was
90-something.
It's like, does it reallymatter at that point if you lost
by so much that people forgotno, it must have been 100.
Yeah, so it's tough.
And coming from the track world,nobody does that anymore.
(17:39):
And he's built different.
He's skinny but throws the shotput Like a nuke right, then
triple jumps, then sprints highjumps.
If he had been a decathlete hewould have been a decathlon
world champion.
If he had been a triple jumper,he probably would have been a
(18:01):
world champion triple jumper.
He did more than Phelps did,which we just talked about.
He's top 10, so Wilt's got tobe higher just by breadth of his
(18:22):
uh, his athletic ability andthat he's shown at an elite
level sure, sure, tj.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I know you're the youngest guy on the panel here,
but, uh, what are you sayingabout will chamberlain?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
yeah, I've obviously only know the stories, only know
, maybe only get to see some ofthe the grainy video, but you
can see the fear of the peoplethat were around him on the
court.
You could see that they were.
Just you know he's gonna dowhat he's gonna do and there's
not much that anybody else cando about it.
So he seems like the athleteand just like the little study
(18:55):
I've been doing because I youknow I like to study a lot of
great black athletes um, itseemed like basketball wasn't
even his best sport, which iskind of scary.
Um, you talked about thesprinting.
Um, I believe that was like thefirst one that they talked
about.
I was like he did it justbecause.
But he could have done thatuntil whenever he decided to
(19:15):
stop.
And can you imagine a guy, 7-1,just sprinting that fast?
Like, do you even want to bearound when that happens?
I'll let him finish first andwe'll come after.
But and you talk aboutpolarizing, there's a reason why
50, 60, 70 years later, he'sstill a guy you talk about,
(19:36):
still a guy you bring up, and aguy that if you were to plug him
in, even in this generation ofbasketball, in this generation
of athlete it would still stand,and those are few and far
between.
So I agree with that.
If we're talking top 10, he'syou know.
Now we're getting into that six, five, four range now with Will
Chamberlain.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Sure, and I think the thing people got to realize is
I mean, he retired as a dominantNBA player, but he became a
professional volleyball player,and anyone that's tried to play
volleyball volleyball is noteasy, like your hand-eye
coordination and the movement,the lateral movement, the
jumping, the things that go intothat.
(20:12):
But then to get in the marathonrunning and then not even be in
the NBA for 10 years and getoffered a contract and go beat
up on Magic Johnson arguably topthree NBA player of all time
and then to have Andre the Giantand Arnold Schwarzenegger
compliment you and say howstrong, how physically just
strong you are at 50 years oldand yeah, think Arnold Jung
(20:35):
right, that's 40 years ago.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 36, 37years old, right, like prime
Arnold, you know.
Will Chamberlain's 50, you know, and he's still just just
barbarically strong.
I mean, said he, just, he wouldrun out of weights trying to
weightlift with those guys.
So I'll tell you what, though,matt, that would have been one
heck of a weight room sessionseeing Arnold and Andre the
(20:57):
Giant and Will Chamberlainthrown around some weight man,
that would have been one heck ofa weight room session.
So one of the next things I wantto go into we're talking about
now.
We're talking about some twosporters here.
We'll bring up a couple of guysyou know Bo Jackson, deion
Sanders both played in the NFLand the MLB.
You had John Elway, who won acouple couple Super Bowls as an
(21:19):
NFL starting quarterback,drafted in the second round of
the MLB by the Yankees.
Why do you think, in youropinions, is there such a higher
correlation with NFL playersplaying in the MLB, or having
that opportunity to play in theMLB, compared to the NBA or NHL?
(21:39):
Why do you think that NFL MLBconnection is so much smoother
than the NBA or NHL?
So, matt, what's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I think it used to be much more of a correlation.
Now, now you're seeing, you'reright.
Like you mentioned, like KylerMurray too, was recently drafted
pretty high for the A's andended up turning.
You ended up turning down theirmoney in playing.
I think a lot of it withfootball has to do with you know
you're going to train if youwant to be on an elite level,
(22:09):
train year round for footballand up until fairly recently it
was not a 365 day sport.
You know, just knowing, even atthe youth level, if you want to
do hockey and you want to dohockey at a high level, you're
doing it 10 months a year.
You know if you want to dobasketball, heck, they can do
(22:31):
basketball 11 and a half monthsa year, I think.
Anymore you can find leaguesand stuff to do.
So you know, up until fairlyrecently you know you were
training, so you're in shape,you're able to do that, and you
know what you get your trainingin.
And, heck, you might as wellplay baseball in the spring and
summer, because you couldn'tcould only play football in the
fall.
So I think that has a littlebit to do with it.
(22:53):
But you know also the specialspecialization of you know
athleticism in the NFL, you knowyou, they're going to find
somewhere.
If you're an athlete you'regoing to, you're going to find
somewhere to put, put them.
You know, and same thing withbaseball, I mean, you know.
So I guess that's that's it.
That's my rant.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
OK, ok, we let.
We love rants on the ride homerants podcast, so it's all about
.
So, mike, what are you sayingabout this?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, I agree it's more of a scheduling conflict
than anything.
Back in the day, you know,three sport athletes were really
common in high school andbecoming less and less common at
the high school level.
And then dual sport athletes incollege were common as well,
high school level.
And then dual sport athletes incollege were common as well,
(23:42):
and you'd see some of these nflguys who were also on college
basketball teams or also on thecollege baseball team.
And then when you get to thepro level, the scheduling for
nfl, nba is difficult.
It's really really hard to do,whereas the overlap for the nfl
on mlb isn't nearly as difficult, especially back when it was a
(24:06):
what?
15 game season, um.
So the, the toll it took onyour body was, you know, much
more confined.
There's not three pre games,there's not OTAs or it's not as
required.
And then the MLB season reallydoesn't overlap in any
(24:26):
meaningful way, especially ifyou're on a bad team.
So I do think that it'sprimarily scheduling.
But recently it's become moreof that specialization where we
don't see those people gettingdrafted in both at the same time
.
I think we'll still see, fromthe high school perspective, mlb
(24:52):
drafts out of high school.
So we'll still see some NFLguys that, oh yeah, remember
when he got drafted as a seniorto the Royals or something and
then never played.
And then finally it's a moneything where if you're going to
the NFL you're guaranteed thatmoney In the MLB, like you're
(25:15):
drafted, you might be on a busto nowhere and in triple a and
live there for 10 years and youknow it's just not as, not as
financially rewarding so quickly.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Sure, okay, you know, tj.
What do you say about this?
You know you're a former, youknow a college baseball player.
If you coached high schoolfootball, you've coached high
school baseball.
You know what are you sayingabout this with that correlation
compared to the MLB or, sorry,the NBA or the NHL.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think the first thing that came to my mind is
like, what do we start with?
And like, t-ball is usuallylike the first thing that people
get put into.
I think that that's kind of whyMLB is.
It's the one you do the longestfor for most people.
The second thing I thought ofwas OK, you know, we all go
shoot a basketball.
We could probably do that.
But your organized sportfootball it's really organized
(26:08):
from an early age.
So you learn all the technique,you learn, okay, this is what
linemen do, this is what thedefense does.
So you kind of learn all thatwhere basketball is kind of hey,
you know here's a layup, butyou know here's a layup, but you
know you can run around incircles and throw the ball up
and that's basketball untilyou're 10 years old.
So I think that kind ofcorrelates to the scheduling was
(26:36):
the first thing that came to mymind when it came to like I
stopped playing basketball inhigh school in 10th grade.
So I was a baseball first guy.
I loved football, but I wasreally small, so I was.
You know, I was only going tobe as good at football as I was
going to be.
But what happens is you gothrough a whole football season
really, which starts in thesummertime, a grueling football
season, week after week hittingeach other and weightlifting.
Then you're like, ok, when's myfirst break?
Your first break was basketballseason.
(26:57):
So a lot of people stop playingbasketball in the wintertime to
prepare for OK, now I'm goingto go to the spring and get
myself ready for baseball.
Also, if you're a high levelbaseball player, you can't go
six, eight months or whateverwithout swinging a baseball bat.
So in the wintertime you'reworking on your baseball stuff
(27:18):
and you're like, hey, I got athree-hour basketball practice
or I can go and take an hour inthe cages, things like that.
So the money definitely goesinto it too.
Now I see these really largeNBA contracts might make a shift
with this.
But those again, those are thetop guys.
It's not the end-of-the guysthat get, you know, whatever
thousands dollars, whatever theyget, still great.
But the minor leagues plays arole into how can I play in the
(27:45):
NFL now for money versus?
Do I have to go through the Dleague in basketball?
Do I have to go through theminor leagues in baseball?
So this is where you're goingto see a lot of athletes start
to choose football, um, andthey're trying to make football
safer, but, um, again, I justthink that baseball is because
that you start with T-ball soyoung.
That's why people naturallyhave done it for 15 years before
(28:07):
they make a decision.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, you know I I think I do agree with you guys
on this stuff, but I do alsothink there's some other factors
.
I think, like in the older days, nba players were a lot started
to get specialized and the NBA,I believe, became more of a
global game.
You had guys stop playing thoseother sports because, one, they
(28:43):
just weren't physically toughenough to play football anymore
and two, they had to become moreskilled.
Because probably since youcould argue Tim Duncan, even
though he was a US VirginIslands Dirk Nowitzki the
international players have keptcoming and coming and coming and
now you can say there's no NBAplayer who's American, who's in
(29:05):
the top five, maybe top six,best players in the NBA right
now.
So I think it has shifted NBAgood basketball players to stop
playing other sports becausethey now have such high
competition from internationalplayers in the basketball realm
for the NHL.
I think those other people don'tplay that sport because for
(29:26):
some reason as Americans we welaugh at the NHL.
I don't think we embrace that.
We we do not give those guysenough credit, whether it's
physically, emotionally,talent-wise, to give them the
time or day.
Now, I'm not a big NHL fan.
I do like the Islanders, butit's hard to watch a game on TV.
But I just don't think, asAmericans, we just give them the
(29:49):
time of day.
But I will tell you this mostNHL hockey players would beat
the living heck out of any NBA,mlb or NFL player in a fight.
You ever seen those guys fight?
Go watch Happy Gilmore too aswell, but I think that's their
thing too.
So I do think things haveshifted with the NBA dynamics of
around the world and peoplejust not giving the NHL the time
(30:11):
of day to do it.
Now I would be curious, just formyself, from wanting to know
this like do MLB play, or sorry,the NHL players from these
other countries?
Do they play any other sportsin those countries?
Maybe, maybe they play soccerfor for the, for the
coordination and the cardio, butI don't think they're probably
(30:32):
playing basketball in certainplaces, like in Canada, you know
, I don't think they're probablyplaying basketball in certain
places, like in Canada, you know, I don't think they're playing
football, because it's such anAmerican sport.
Maybe rugby, you know, whoknows?
I'd be curious about that.
But um, and I do think longgone are the days, though, of Bo
Jackson and Dion and and JohnElway, even Kyler Murray.
Jeff Samarja, the big receiverfrom Notre Dame back in the day,
(30:54):
who went to the MLB, had prettygood career, I think, with the
Cubs.
Um, so going on the next onethough, you know, um, matt, you
were on the round table back inthe summer we were talking about
, or last year.
I think it's even not lastsummer, we maybe it was last
summer, I can't even remember.
We have so many episodes here.
Everyone about 275ed aboutRocky Balboa.
(31:14):
We're going to talk about proboxing right now.
So now taking Rocky Balboa outof the equation because he
wasn't a true, real boxer.
You know, matt, in your opinion, how athletic are professional
boxers?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Unreal athleticism.
You know from being on thatroundtable, you know my opinion
on boxing.
I love boxing, I grew upwatching it.
Yeah, they have to be unrealathletes because you have to
have cardio, you have to havestrength, you have to have
stamina, you have to know how totake a hit and you have to, you
know, roll all that into onewith only a 45 second to one
(31:53):
minute break in between rounds,one with only a 45 second to one
minute break in between rounds.
So I think there was a timewhen boxing was more popular,
that those, all of your eliteathletes would gravitate towards
that sport automatically.
I know that shifted quite a bitover the past generation or so,
but you still have to be agreat athlete.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Okay, what about you, mike?
What's your opinion on proboxers and their athletic
abilities?
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, same thing.
They're all great athletes, forsure.
I think one of the things thatseparates team sports from
individual sports like boxing,is you have to know how to win.
If you're on the defensive sideof the ball, you have to know
how to win right, like, ifyou're on the defensive side of
the ball, you have to know howto do your job right.
You have to know your skillplayer, whereas boxing, like,
(32:42):
you have to know in real timewhere you are, like nobody's
telling you what the scorecardis.
You have to know what thatscorecard is.
You have to know how to win andhow to you know either dig
yourself out of the hole or hangon for however many rounds, if
you know you're not going toknock the guy out right, because
(33:03):
sometimes it's not in yourarsenal.
Um, so I I think you know allof the physical traits are huge,
but you also have to be veryintelligent about the game,
whereas that's not supernecessary in a skilled position
(33:23):
of a team sport.
You just go out there and doyour job, whereas in boxing, you
are in total control of yourown outcome.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
TJ, what are you saying about professional boxers
here?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I think that you just take it back.
Boxing is like the man's game,right?
You can probably trace thatback to the beginning of time,
where stand in front of you,don't move.
First person to go down isthat's who loses, right?
So the mental toughness ittakes to be a boxer, to be able
to just do that, to be able tosay, hey, my body's on the line
(34:01):
here and I'm sitting here tryingto defend myself and also knock
out the guy that's in front ofme.
But they talk about how boxersgo and take ballet.
They need to know how to usetheir feet.
They need to know how to haveamazing balance.
Their core strength has to beable to deliver a blow and also
withstand a blow.
It's just, you know the dodgingthe, the speed that these guys
(34:23):
throw punches at.
I think again, tv doesn't do itjustice, as how fast these guys
actually are.
Um, and you know, with theirretraction skills and things,
you know their ability to throwin, bring back a punch.
So, yeah, I think that thething that devalued the boxing
is maybe the rise of MMA haspeople have said, oh, it's more
(34:44):
interesting to see people, youknow, do takedowns and things
like that.
But I mean, boxing was thenumber one thing through, like
the Great Depression.
Boxing was the number one thingfor a long, long time for a
reason.
So, um, you know and, and, andthere's a lot of people that try
and, oh, I can fight, I canfight, and then you go step in
the boxing ring and they don'tlast very long.
(35:04):
So, yeah, there's justappreciation that maybe has been
lost over the years with withboxing for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Sure, and and you know, matt knows this, most
people that know me know this,I'm a huge boxing fan.
We've had on Kelly Pavlik onthe show.
We've had on the HandsomeHitman Josh Himes.
We've had a lot of MMA fighters.
Just had a chance to do thewell, I guess it was last summer
.
But the Tyson-Paul fight.
I think the thing people don'trealize about boxers and to TJ's
(35:32):
point, the ballet, the cardiothat they have to go through,
matt's point, the very shortrest periods, like, if you want
to know what's intense, go lookat a boxer's workout during camp
.
You know other sports willmimic those workouts to get
themselves ready.
No boxer is doing an nflworkout.
An nfl player is doing a boxingworkout, though for his cardio,
(35:56):
you know, and his stamina youknow.
And the fact that you got to,you got to be able to weightlift
, you got to know angles.
You have to have that hand eyecoordination because the thing
is, you know to.
To Mike's point, you can behidden.
Right If you're on a team,right If you, if you're a weak
link in that ring, it's just youand you and the guy in front of
you who's trying to knock yourhead off, literally you know.
(36:17):
So I think you know, pro boxersdefinitely don't get enough
credit for being athletic, youknow.
And yet to TJ's point, you'veseen, you know, pro athletes try
to go in the ring with boxersand it usually hasn't hasn't
worked out too well.
Nate Robinson, so you know,when he, when he went in for
that.
(36:37):
So I think I think if youreally want to see something
special, just as a sports fanright, you're talking about
great athletes go watch.
Like the flyweights, uh, youknow, in boxing, their hand
speed like prime mannypacquiao's hand speed and
footwork was unbelievable, um,you know, with that, you know.
And for people that say,someone like the super
heavyweights Anthony Joshua, um,you know, deontay Wilder, um,
(37:02):
tyson, uh, fury, that they'renot athletic, go watch those
guys too, um, you know, cause Idon't think you want to go on
the ring with them, uh, either.
And if you want to seesomething even cooler, look up
Mike Tyson's workouts when hewould do his strength exercises
with his neck, when he would dohis neck rolls in the ring.
So most people couldn't do thateither, from just an athletic
(37:24):
standpoint.
So one of the next ones we'regoing to go into Olympic
wrestling, right, olympicwrestlers.
People look at Olympicwrestlers and they just usually
think, wow, those are some justbig guys.
Well, those Olympic wrestlersare pretty athletic too and
they're pretty tough guys.
For people that don't know,kurt Angle WWF wrestler WWE now,
(37:45):
but people don't realize thatKurt Angle was a multiple time
college national champion.
Kurt Angle also won an Olympicgold medal with a fractured neck
as well.
So, matt, going off of thisOlympic wrestlers, to be an
Olympic gold medalist, do youhave to be more athletic or more
physically tough?
(38:06):
What's your opinion?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I would say athletic.
You know, once you get to thatlevel, everybody's tough um.
You, you know, once you get tothat level, everybody's tough um
.
You have to have mentaltoughness and physical toughness
to succeed at a high level atany sport really, um, but
there's a huge difference, uh,you know.
Not to uh hijack this, I'lljust tell a story real quick.
(38:28):
I was playing with some, uh,when I was playing football in
college.
I mean some college buddies, um, one of my best college
friends' brother wrestled atKent.
We went to go see a Division Icollege wrestling match and
watch his brother.
We all just looked at eachother like holy moly, these guys
are way more athletic, waybetter at us than anything if
(38:53):
you say athletic or toughness.
So yeah, I think athleticismmore than toughness.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Okay, okay, Mike, to be in a gold medal champion in
wrestling, in Olympic wrestling,do you have to be tougher or
more athletic?
Like what is that one factorthat takes you over the top in
this?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Athletic athletic for sure.
And I think the thing that likeathletic for sure and I think
the thing that like kind ofspeaks to that the most is just
look at how dominant wrestlersare in the mma right.
Tony ferguson in the mma isvery tough, too tough.
He gets hit in the face andjust keeps going.
(39:34):
He's a zombie right, and thatto the detriment of his mental
health.
But wrestlers have, you know,as wrestling has kind of gone
through some pretty tough timesinternationally and uh, at the
at the world stage and even inthe college stage, it's, it's,
it's hard to, you know, stayrelevant, um, as a sport right
(39:58):
now, which is very sad.
Mike, the wrestling coach atspire would really get on me for
that.
But those guys are allunbelievably tough.
They're animals, they'reabsolute animals, but they're
pivoting and trying to, you know, save their sport and they
don't have to change very muchat all to be unbelievably
(40:19):
successful in another fightingsport, because they will just
grab you and move you where theywant, and it is.
You give a handshake tosomebody who does manual labor
for a living and you're like,wow, that dude's strong.
And then you handshake awrestler and he might lift you
(40:41):
off the ground by accident.
Those guys are a differentlevel of just your strength.
They may not power clean 400pounds, but they will move
people and things how they want,and they're all fruits.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Okay, tj, what are you saying about this?
So?
Speaker 3 (41:07):
at Notre Dame.
When I was there, our wrestlingteam won the national
championship multiple times.
So I got to be around a lot ofamazing, unbelievably great
collegiate athletic wrestlersand the thing that I noticed is
they're all great athletes butnot all of them had their head
on screen.
(41:28):
Wrestling is a place whereyou're not supposed to, but I
saw guys that could, you know,stand and do a backflip, a
standing backflip, things likethat, but then they go in a
wrestling match and they losetheir head.
They lose.
You know what is the game plan,what am I supposed to do?
And then you see a kid that'sjust.
Oh, you know that.
I know a nice kid.
You know he's an okay athlete.
Obviously it takes to be agreat athlete, but he was so
(41:49):
smart, so good at what he wastrying to execute that that's
what got him to being a nationalchampion Again.
All sports, I don't care.
Whatever sport you do, you haveto be athletic to be great at
that sport.
But I think for me, when youhave the lack of discipline, the
(42:10):
lack of hey, I can take thisdrill off.
You know that separates you.
That separates the people thatare very good, great and elite.
It's just how far are youwilling to go and how focused
are you willing to be to be ableto execute the goal that you
set for yourself?
And I've seen so many greatathletes just fall to the.
(42:30):
This is a little too hard, youknow so, to me, I think, to be
able to do that.
You talk about Kurt Angle withthe broken neck.
You tell me his athleticismwasn't hindered with a broken
neck and all of a sudden, hisyou know intestinal fortitude
just took over and said hey, no,I'm winning this, this is for
me to win, so Sure sure, I thinkyou guys make all great points
(42:51):
on it.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm going to make just three quick points and then
we're going to move on to ourlast three questions.
You know.
First thing is, to your point,I think everyone is athletic.
When you're at the top top ofthe game and when you're in the
Olympics, I think you're sophysically beat up that then it
just becomes who is tougher,right, who is tougher at this
point?
Whether it's swimming, crosscountry or sorry, track and
(43:15):
field, you know, whatever it maybe, wrestling, it's just who is
mentally tougher and physicallycan push through this.
The next thing, though, I willsay is you know the toughness
part and, TJ, correct me if I'mwrong I think you were there
with Joeyey davis, um, duringthat time at ndc.
For people that don't know, joeydavis is one of three all-time
(43:38):
undefeated national champions.
Mike, I'm sure, has heard allthese stories.
Uh, being at ndc um, joey wasthe only division.
Two all-time undefeatednational, four-time national
champion ever.
Joey davis, I think his lastyear went up two divisions from
his weight and won the nationalchampionship.
Now, sure was that athleticability.
(43:58):
Yeah, for sure Was that morebeing mentally and physically
tough.
You know absolutely.
But to Matt's point on this, ifyou want to go see some guys
who are big, strong, fast, gowatch division one wrestlers, um
, go at it.
Even the guys who, who aren'tthe best, who aren't the Cal
Sanderson's of the world of,aren't the Kurt Angles, go watch
(44:21):
.
Even the guy who's the backuphundred, you know 89 pound, you
know wrestler.
Those guys will take your headoff um, every day of the week
and twice on Sundays.
So, uh, yeah, if you want to gosee something impressive,
definitely go see some collegewrestlers.
Which brings me into thisstudio wrestling.
For people who may say what isstudio wrestling?
(44:42):
Well, it's WWE, formerly knownas WWF, and WCW.
People knock a lot of theseathletes who have done this.
Now, we've seen and all of usare different ages and we've
seen this over the years A lotof pro athletes go into
wrestling later on.
You've had on Kurt Angle, right.
You had on the rock who played,you know, college football, and
(45:05):
in the CFL um, mongo McMichael,who was the starting D tackle
for the 85 bears, you know.
You've seen the Paulul um, theolder paul brother, logan paul
with the boxing crossover.
You've seen rob gronkowski alot of different guys, right.
But people want to knock thesewrestlers and say they're
unathletic to me.
And I'm going to start this oneoff.
(45:26):
I think people are wrong whenthey say that, because these men
and women are some of thebiggest, strongest human beings
in all of sports.
You go back to Andre the Giant7'4" 500 pounds could lift a car
off the ground, and that's nota story, that's a fact.
People have seen him do it, youknow.
You look at someone like HulkHogan, who was, you know 6'8",
(45:50):
300 pounds.
You know Thunder Lips and RockyIII.
You know it was just a physicalspecimen.
Though you have these big,strong, huge human beings
contorting their bodies crazyways.
You know jumping off, um, youknow table, or jumping on the
tables hitting each other withchairs and stuff's.
To me, you know very, veryathletic.
(46:10):
There ain't a lot of people whocould do that stuff, but matt,
in your opinion.
You've probably seen prowrestling the longest here.
You know what's your take onthese studio wrestlers and their
athletic ability.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I think they're unreal athletes.
And you know this is right inmy wheelhouse I love wrestling,
all things.
You know grew up after schoolwith the AWA on early days, espn
, the NWA on weekends on TBS andthen WWF all mixed through and
I think a lot of people thatknock the athleticism on
(46:42):
wrestling are maybe a little bityoung, because that was kind of
by design.
Vince McMahon kind of wanted totake some athleticism out of
wrestling and make the guys asbig and as strong and as stiff
and you know throwing guysaround as possible.
And you know, you look at andit's going on 30 years ago.
(47:03):
But you know, you look at ECW.
That was around about 30 years,25, 30 years ago, where they
were allowed to showcase.
You know their athleticism andit was amazing and even still to
this day, you know, startingabout probably for the last 40
years.
If you really want to seeathleticism on display, look at
New Japan Pro Wrestling and JPW.
(47:24):
That is amazing to see theathleticism that they display on
that.
So I will sing the praises ofprofessional wrestlers being
freak athletes all day long.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, okay, mike, what are you saying on this?
Speaker 4 (47:39):
All right.
So from an entertainmentperspective, I never was into
pro wrestling studio wrestling Ididn't get it.
And from an entertainment valuepiece like that show, it's not
for me right as athletes.
I have a former athlete of minefrom William Mary, troy
(48:03):
Yearwood.
He goes by Jamar Hampton nowfor WWE.
Next, he is by far the craziestathlete I've ever seen, by far.
I've seen him on his Instagram.
He has all of his gym stuffSeated to 60-inch vertical box
(48:27):
jump.
I think he got an official46-inch standing vertical test.
I've seen him do snatch gripdeadlifts with over 500 pounds
for sets of six and above.
When he does pull-ups he pullshis hips to the bar.
(48:48):
He weighs nothing and he's nowin pro wrestling.
Right, I would watch him for theentertainment value of that is
the most athletic human I'veever seen in my life.
He did a NFL combine test atWilliam and Mary.
(49:11):
He was a thrower there.
He wasn't.
He wasn't a football player andhe would have been in the top
5% of these combine tests justbecause his 40-yard dash was
super quick.
I don't have it off the top ofmy head but I know he jumped
like 12'6 in standing.
(49:31):
Broad jump, the standingvertical in college.
Broad jump.
The standing vertical incollege was 42.
When he went to grad school itwas 46.
I mean, the man is the mostathletic person I've ever seen
and he has always been justjacked, ripped to the gills.
He looks the part, he fits theWWE.
(49:52):
He's an insane athlete and Iguess all of them are like that
okay, tj.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
What are you saying about this?
Speaker 3 (50:03):
yeah, I grew up a huge wrestling fan, so this is,
uh, this is easy for me, um, andsummer slams on tonight for a
night too.
So, um, for wwe.
But again, you look at how many, especially you know matt was
talking about back in, you know,70s, 80s, 90s a lot of people
try to transition from otherprofessional sports into
(50:24):
professional wrestling andfailed miserably, you know, and
they tried and they said thatthey just couldn't keep up with
what was going on.
But it also showed you kind ofbrought up Kurt Angle, a guy
that took that and transitionfrom amateur wrestling to
professional wrestling and didit so well.
People try to follow him andstill couldn't keep up the way
that Kurt Angle did it.
(50:44):
But, um, you know, there thereis the entertainment value of it
, there's the show business sideof it, there's the hey.
We want to, you know, makepeople feel the emotion that
they're trying to go through.
But they still got to be ableto protect themselves, they
still got to be able to put on,um, you know, a conflict.
They have to make it look likea conflict, make it look like a
(51:05):
fight and still be able toperform all the things they need
to perform.
They describe them as liveaction stuntmen.
They don't get a second take,they don't get to go back.
Oh, I fell on my head, let mego and get the crash pad.
We got the crash pad, do itagain.
They don't have that.
So that's where the athleticismreally speaks to them.
(51:28):
And as you're going through thenames you're listing, I'm
thinking of the two thattransitioned from amateur
wrestling.
So Bobby Lashley was one and hewent into combat wrestling and
did a great job doing combatwrestling and he went into
professional wrestling.
He still great job doing combatwrestling and he went into
professional wrestling.
He still said professionalwrestling is harder than the
combat sport, just being able todo that.
(51:49):
And then Brock Lesnar when youlook at his, he said he did,
obviously, he did amateurwrestling at an extremely high
level in Minnesota, did a greatjob.
And then he said I'll go try toplay football, didn't make it
out of spring training, um, andhe, he as much as he said uh,
you know, football was harderthan professional wrestling.
(52:11):
It just shows that that's thetype of athlete professional
wrestling can produce, um, attimes.
So, uh, yeah, these guys I mean, and the cool thing about
professional wrestling big,small men, women they're able to
go and do it.
But it does take a specialathlete, because not anybody can
just go and say, oh, I want todo this for fun, let me go do it
, because you end up gettinghurt, you end up doing damage to
(52:34):
yourself.
So, yeah, no, I got a lot ofrespect for them.
And again, just like everysport, if you're a professional
in any sport that you do, youare at the top of the game in
that, in that field.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
Sure, one name I'm going to throw out there for
everybody to check out, becausehe was a college wrestler.
He was in WCW for a while, Ibelieve, with Ric Flair, um, and
then he went into the original,the original UFC Dan the beast
Severn.
So watch Dan the beast Severn'sMMA fights when he would and he
was a and he was a wrestler andhe would just grab people and
(53:07):
he would just start bodyslamming them on their head and
those guys were out cold.
But he did the original UFCwhen it was a lot tougher WCW
and college wrestling.
So two questions left for youguys, and we're talking about
some of the greatest athletes ofall time.
Now this is a simple yes or noquestion.
When you're talking greatestathletes ever not NBA players
(53:31):
greatest athletes ever, isLeBron James a top 10 greatest
athlete in the history of sports?
Matt, yes, okay.
Mike, yes, okay.
Tj of sports matt, yes, okay.
Mike, yes, hey.
Tj, yes, I have to.
Okay, okay, I was reallycurious on that.
(53:53):
Um, you know, because when youreally start thinking about it,
right, great nba player, butthen you guys start thinking
we'll leave it on thiscliffhanger.
Is he more accomplished thanWill Chamberlain?
Is he more accomplished as anathlete than Wayne Gretzky?
Could he do what Wayne Gretzkydid?
Could he do what Mike Tyson did?
(54:15):
Could he do what Jerry Rice did?
You know, could he do whatMichael Phelps did?
You know you got to think aboutthose things too.
Could he do what Michael Phelpsdid?
You know you got to think aboutthose things too, but I, you
know he's arguably there.
All right, final question, andI'm going to let you guys think
about this, I'm going to namemine and my reasons behind it.
Who are your top two athletesof all time, regardless of
(54:38):
generation and sport ever.
And I'll give you my two righthere.
We'll see if Coach Larkinappreciates this first one.
I'm going to go with the legend,jim Thorpe, the only man in
sports history to win thedecathlon and the pentathlon in
the 1912 Olympics with twodifferent shoes on during that
(54:58):
time.
Two different shoes, not thesame shoes, two different shoes.
He was also a professionalballroom dancer.
He was also a professionalbaseball player, professional
football player.
He also was the firstcommissioner of the NFL.
So I actually got a chance tovisit Jim Thorpe, pennsylvania,
the old Mauchunk town, got achance to visit Jim Thorpe, see
(55:21):
his memorial out there and thehistory behind him Arguably
greatest athlete ever.
I don't think anyone could everdo what he did.
Even if you take the othersports out of there, there's no
way the average person canbecome a national champion
competitor in ballroom dancingas well.
You want to talk about hard?
Go, try to do that.
(55:41):
My second greatest athlete everis definitely Wilt Chamberlain.
What he did later on in life asan athlete was probably more
impressive than what he did asan NBA player.
To be a professional indoorvolleyball, the marathon running
, the weightlifting.
To do that post your retirementin the NBA is unbelievable,
(56:08):
matt.
Who are your top two greatestathletes of all time?
Speaker 2 (56:11):
I immediately, when you asked the question,
immediately jumped to Jim Brownum, just with the eye test, as
well as lacrosse and the NFL.
Um, and my second one, eventhough he's not nearly as
decorated as probably all theguys that you're you guys are
going to mention or whateverelse.
It's just, once again, it's theeye test and you know um,
(56:32):
olympic bobsled team uh,sprinter, hurdler, uh, just a
freak athlete, uh, probably thatI've seen in person.
Herschel Walker Probably couldhave won the Heisman as an
18-year-old if they allowed himto.
Just the best.
If you're talking pure athletethat I've seen with my own eyes
in my lifetime, it's probablyhim.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
Okay, and people forget Herschel Walker got into
MMA in his late 40s and early50s as well.
He was doing that.
So those are really good ones,Matt.
Those are really really goodones, Mike.
What are you saying here?
Speaker 4 (57:10):
To not negate anything that anybody else has
said, but also to not repeat OneI'm going to throw out.
That's just real off the wallsand probably won't get mentioned
on this podcast.
Real off the walls and probablywon't get mentioned on this
podcast Very often in general isEddie Merckx, port-au-france
(57:42):
winner, I believe five timesback, king of the Mountains
yellow jersey and the greenjersey, so sprint jerseys, and
he would have won the youngestrider jerseys as well.
He was dominant for two decadeson the bike and so I think he's
(58:04):
the Wayne Gretzky of cyclingwhere it's kind of like, yeah,
it's him and nobody else, andeven Lance, I think, would admit
that, and then I don't thinkanybody has or not very many
people who know cycling verywell put Lance above Eddie
(58:26):
merckx, which is seven time uh,toward franz way, um, and then
another kind of curveball.
But who's kind of?
You know, really writing hername in the history books right
now is katie ledecky.
I mean, she has what?
The top 30-something times everin the 800 free.
(58:51):
It's her, then her 30 times andthen somebody else.
So it's like you know, arethose the two greatest athletes
of all time?
They're certainly the mostdominant um in their own sport.
Um, does that translate toother sports?
I don't know, but I wanted toput out those names.
(59:12):
Not to.
That's a step on the other toes, but those two pop into my head
is like pure dominance in their, in their, in their niche.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
Sure, no, I mean, that was great.
And you know what I thought wewanted to do this show?
Because we wanted to talk topeople who really maybe don't
know the NHL, who maybe don'tknow Michael Phelps in the
Olympic sports, who maybe don'tremember Will Chamberlain or
Herschel Walker, know much aboutcycling, maybe don't know
anything about studio wrestling.
You know, we want to informpeople a lot about this because
(59:43):
there's so many great athletesand just because we pick two, it
doesn't mean they're betterthan anybody else, just our
opinion.
We're just ranting on Ryan Homerants about it, right, so you
know, we're just kind of givingit.
So, no, thank you for pointingthose out, because a lot of
people who don't know cyclingwant to know that.
I could never name anothercycler behind Lance Armstrong,
and now I feel more informedabout it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
So, um, TJ, who are your top two of all time.
I'm a victim of my age here.
Um, so my number one, I wasalways been told my whole life
Bo Jackson, right it just youtry to think about the stories
that everybody's told about, uh,you know, oh, they they did.
Everybody's told about.
(01:00:25):
You know, oh, they did.
The laser, you know he ran a 40yard dash and the laser had him
at, you know, 413.
But the handhelds had him atlike 397.
And they had to open the door inthe back of the gym because he
wasn't going to be able to stopbecause he was running that fast
and just the people that playedagainst him, and then to be
(01:00:45):
able to go and just kind of Playbaseball.
You know, yeah, I was OKbaseball.
You know, I was just an allstar, it's fine.
So just those things are what,just what I've been told growing
up.
So I kind of, you know, Ibought into it and I, you know,
I read about it and it just hehad me convinced.
I did hear about Jim Thorpe,which was an amazing story, and
obviously the movie about himand everything which was.
(01:01:07):
You know, we only get the tipof the iceberg.
Obviously, we never saw himcompete.
So.
But my second one is JackieRobinson.
So Jackie Robinson, throughoutcollege he was, he was a four
sport varsity All-American.
So just to think about Iplaying one sport was hard
(01:01:27):
enough, but to be able to go andbe four, so he did football,
basketball, baseball and trackand field and he was an
all-american in all of them.
And then he said I guess Igotta go join the army, you know
.
So he left and joined theservice and then came back and
was still able to do the thingsthat he was able to do for
baseball, you know, obviously,as a baseball player.
(01:01:47):
But, um, when you talk aboutgreatest athletes, I think that
you talk about the athleticism,but the impact too, and his
impact obviously is everlasting.
So, uh, that plays a role forme too sure?
Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
no, those are all great points all three of you
guys um you made, and thank youso much for coming on this
episode.
I think this was a lot of fun,uh, hearing from guys who played
college sports, who havecoached high school and college
sports, who, like history, youknow, are very well rounded in
the sports realm.
I think this was a lot of funand very informative for people
as well.
Um, you know, mike Matt TJ,thank you so much for being on
(01:02:22):
and thank you for everyone fortuning in.
Make sure you go ahead anddownload the episode and check
out all these guys on ourprevious episodes, on their
individual episodes that they'vebeen on or the other
roundtables that they've been onpreviously too.
(01:02:42):
So, on behalf of Ride HomeRants, this is Vinny signing off
and we will see you next week.
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