Are NFL Player the Best OVERALL Athletes

[HunterSdVa29]

which is why a former nfl DL and a women beater like Greg Hardy will be UFC champ in a few months. Would be sooner but Dana doesn't want to show how embarrassing shallow the ufc talent pool is.

it also explain why a Canadian karataka w/ ZERO amateur wrestling experience would be able to dominate MULTIPLE BJJ blackbelts and D1 AA and champions on the mat....(GSP)

why? b/c he was way more athletic than them, picked things up easier, stronger, quicker, etc....

And he's just a good athlete by UFC standards, not major sports.
Also explains why a really good athlete ten years removed from amateur wrestling, and doesn't know how to react being hit became UFC champ with relative ease (Brock)

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

but then you have to explain

Lyle Alzado, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Mark Gastineau(sp?), Alonzo Highsmith and various other guys who tried to pick up MMA or boxing once they left the NFL

Look up Luke Rockhold sparring with the Seahawks DB. I've seen NFL LBs that look clumsy as hell hitting the mitts.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

Basketball or NBA to be specific

 

[puppybird]

I can't believe no one mentioned 100m sprint.
In terms of pure athleticism being able to run 100m in under 10 seconds is insane.
And its always been the top event at the Olympics, the number 1 athletics event in the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen I rest my case!

 

[panamaican]

but then you have to explain

Lyle Alzado, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Mark Gastineau(sp?), Alonzo Highsmith and various other guys who tried to pick up MMA or boxing once they left the NFL

Look up Luke Rockhold sparring with the Seahawks DB. I've seen NFL LBs that look clumsy as hell hitting the mitts.

You can't consider athletes who try a new sport after they've left their prime in another sport. They lack the years of training required to be elite, they're past their prime physically, and you have to account for the basic wear and tear of years of high level competition.

That a past prime athlete transitions to a new sport, even being remotely competitive is pretty impressive.

 

[Mr Mojo Lane]

You can't consider athletes who try a new sport after they've left their prime in another sport. They lack the years of training required to be elite, they're past their prime physically, and you have to account for the basic wear and tear of years of high level competition.

That a past prime athlete transitions to a new sport, even being remotely competitive is pretty impressive.

Those guy weren't past their primes. Yes, they lack years of training. I agree. I am countering the "NFL guys only need 6 months of training to win the UFC" logic

I was trying to bring up all of the 23 year olds who get cut by the NFL so they try to make it in MMA more than those specific guys.

I've said different sport=different attributes several times.

 

[boingyman]

Before you can ask these type of questions, you have set specific measurable parameters of what is considered an athlete that is not biased towards a certain direction. Many NFL athletes should be up there though as they would score high overall if using basic athletic criteria, which is an extremely important characteristic in most positions on the field.

 

[JSN]

Hockey is a rich man’s sport. Playing in top competitive leagues as a kid growing up costs a shit ton of money. Makes sense that when you reach the top level, you make a lot too.

To summarize, you and every one you know sound poor.

We sound poor because we don’t have a bocce court in the backyard. Hockey is just a niche as fuck sport that only people in Canada and like upstate New York even know about.

 

[jimbob27]

"Athletic" is such a broad encompassing term, however human beings as a species are built for endurance rather than strength, so I think we should be judging ourselves on what we're naturally good at and something that's measurable.

By that rational, I think tri-athletes have one of the strongest cases. The Hawaiian Iron man triathlon was originally devised as an argument between different sports clubs on who had the fitter athletes, so they came up with a pretty ludicrous way for people to prove themselves.

There's fuck all money in it except for a very few at the top. All the competitors care about is the pure athleticism of the event and it's measured in a tangible way, unlike somebodies ability to perform in a game of hand-egg.

 

[gspieler]

also 'athleticism' isn't some random, generic term

The NFL combine literally measures what most people consider to be the facets of athleticism : strength, speed, quickness, agility, leaping ability, etc....

Which is why they also have the best athletes.

NBA players would do better at football than NFL players would do at basketball, IMO.

 

[gspieler]

I hadn't really thought of gymnasts or decathletes, they've got a serious claim as well.

Decathletes might be the most well-rounded. I'm not sure I would extrapolate that into being the best.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Yes.

Because football is almost exclusively a physical sport. Aside from quarterbacks, very little if any skill is needed so the player's entire focus is on improving the physical.

This is why any time you hear of a player "improving during the offseason," it's him working out or lifting, or doing something physical. Yeah, you get the occasional "run routes" shit but 95% is training to become bigger, faster, stronger. From middle school to the pros, it's a constant journey to become more and more athletic.

 

[BehindTheShadows]

I would say Hockey bc those dudes play tons of games multi times a week and beat the hell out of each other while ice skating around chasing a puck with a stick

 

[gspieler]

if we negate speed/quickness, then wrestling and gymnastics certainly deserve some mentioning

go try to do those rings right now, good luck haha

Gymnasts are incredibly quick. It is simply imossible to perform many of the explosive movements they do without incredible speed. Same with weight lifters. Power = speed X strength. And they both have it in spades.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

Gymnasts are incredibly quick. It is simply imossible to perform many of the explosive movements they do without incredible speed. Same with weight lifters. Power = speed X strength. And they both have it in spades.

they're also manlets

they don't have NFL caliber 40 times, i can virtually guarantee that.

The closest thing to an NFL player is really high level sprinters (whom many can argue surpass them), but they don't have that necessary strength component as much as many NFLers do.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

NBA players would do better at football than NFL players would do at basketball, IMO.

sure?
the average NBA height is 6'7", you can't teach that nor just learn that hand/eye coordination required to dribble/shoot in a day.

NBA players would on average take one hit in the NFL and be out for life. They are mostly thin, lanky guys. Heisman winner Eric crouch took one shot in preseason, shattered spleen, go to the CFL see you. And he ran a 4.4 as a white qb in college, something 98% of nba players cant do.
It has worked in only one aspect, former PF to TE, mainly just Antonio Gates that was actually good at basketball and he's a 6'4 275 guy that was too big for the hoops court (played PF at only 6'4")

 

[gspieler]

sure?
the average NBA height is 6'7", you can't teach that nor just learn that hand/eye coordination required to dribble/shoot in a day.

NBA players would on average take one hit in the NFL and be out for life. They are mostly thin, lanky guys. Heisman winner Eric crouch took one shot in preseason, shattered spleen, go to the CFL see you. And he ran a 4.4 as a white qb in college, something 98% of nba players cant do.
It has worked in only one aspect, former PF to TE, mainly just Antonio Gates that was actually good at basketball and he's a 6'4 275 guy that was too big for the hoops court (played PF at only 6'4")

That's roughly the equivalent of mma hipsters saying NFL guys would wash out of mma because they're not used to getting hit in the face. The truth is, some would transition well; others wouldn't. But the ones that did, would fare better in the NFL, than the WR's, TE's, etc would in the NBA. Just my opinion.

 

[drstrangelov]

Decathletes might be the most well-rounded. I'm not sure I would extrapolate that into being the best.

I'm not sure either, but I'd accept the rationale that being good at a ton of diverse, difficult athletic contests makes you the best athlete. There's a huge subjective component, and this particular subjective basis seems most logically sound and almost certainly not the product of fan bias.

 

[Deleted member 460645]

 

[JinKazama]

hmm i would think the top tier NFL running back/tight ends and NBA guards/fwd are probably neck and neck