Brady ranked 4th Top Athlete of 1995 - 2015 by ESPN

patsinthesnow said:

Tiger Woods' stretch from 2000-2008 is the most dominant stretch in the history of sports. He also fundamentally changed the image of golf.

He's 1 and nobody else is close IMO.

Click to expand...

Oh come on. Michael Phelps has 22 Olympic Medals (most all time) 18 of which are gold and the next highest gold medeal winner of all time only has 9. Woods isn't even considered the greatest golfer ever by some when nobody can dispute Phelps clear dominance over the world going back to what 1896 (when the Olympics began) PGA started in 1929.

Woods and Phelps are very close.

resdubwhite said:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...hos-afraid-of-johannes-draaijer-30479202.html

Click to expand...

http://www.webmd.com/asthma/guide/prednisone-asthma

As common as it gets for hermetical use prescribed commonly by doctors.

The "all steroids are bad" excuse is lame and uninformed. The medical community hasn't even begun to tap the full resources of what value this research can become.

If you suffer from asthema as an athlete and the best relief is a steroid, give up any athletic aspirations you've ever had. If you do well at anything athletically you're a "cheater".

Bruins29 said:

Oh come on. Michael Phelps has 22 Olympic Medals (most all time) 18 of which are gold and the next highest gold medeal winner of all time only has 9. Woods isn't even considered the greatest golfer ever by some when nobody can dispute Phelps clear dominance over the world going back to what 1896 (when the Olympics began) PGA started in 1929.

Woods and Phelps are very close.

Click to expand...

Golf is not an athletic sport. It's a game. Golf will be included in the 2016 Olympics for the first time since 1904. Why? It will draw in the overweight middle-aged white American slacker TV audience.

I'll be tuning into the female beach volley-ball games in Rio myself, but to each his own.

'Nuff said

Reading this thread you can see we all mention people we're aware of and miss out on people we're not aware of who should be on the list.

That being said ESPN, "The Worldwide Leader in Sports", has no excuse. ESPN proving what a joke they are again and again and again.

I'm fine with 1 and 2 i guess

Lmao at lebron

Lmao at soccer players.

Jangles said:

I'm fine with 1 and 2 i guess

Lmao at lebron

Lmao at soccer players.

Click to expand...

Lmao at golphers. Might as well put poker players in the equation.

OhExaulted1 said:

Tiger Woods, Golf and athlete should never be used in the same sentence.

Golf is a game, like pool or darts. Rafeal Nadal and Roger Federer would smack him into next year. Say what you want about Tennis, but you ain't winning anything if your a fat old John Daly or a 46 year old like Nicklaus was in '86.

Sorry, but golf is lame and takes up to much real estate for wanna-be rich people to go pretend they have athletic ability.

Click to expand...

Ridiculous.

Golf is harder to dominate than any other sport. You're playing against the field every single tournament. You're not facing a singular person or singular team. There are no refs to bail you out or give you a favorable call. There are no superstar treatment. It's you, the ball, and the golf course. And you gotta play against the best 150 players in the world every single big tournament.

Honorable mentions not included on this list:

Deion Sanders...greatest corner ever plus 2 time SB winner with two different teams. One of the fastest people on earth in his prime. Played in a World Series with the Atlanta Braves

Mariano Rivera--hardly ever failed in such a long career with closing for the Yankees. Dave Roberts and Luis Gonzalez were his two failures that stood out the most. Otherwise this guy was just lights out even at 40 years old.

David Beckham
Andre Agassi
Scottie Pippen

OhExaulted1 said:

Lmao at golphers. Might as well put poker players in the equation.

Click to expand...

You've clearly never played golf

Greatest of all time sport for greatest of all time athletes. Ask Michael Jordan and tom Brady how they feel about it

resdubwhite said:

for pure global reach and dominance over a period of the past 8 or so years Messi deserves no 1 from a global persepective.

From a US perspective its got to be Phelps or Brady.

edit: Add Tiger to the list. Whether you agree he's an athlete or not. He flatout dominated one of the biggest sports in the world for a long long time. Its a shame to see his career going the way it is.

Click to expand...

Tiger's career is going the way that it was predicted it would by some of the "experts" around the game. They said his swing would lead to physical problems and it has.

Jangles said:

You've clearly never played golf

Greatest of all time sport for greatest of all time athletes. Ask Michael Jordan and tom Brady how they feel about it

Click to expand...

When I saw professional athletes from other sports talking about how tough golf was, I knew it had to be.

I am surprised LeBron James is rated this high. No one can deny his talent, but if he retired today, did he even have a better career than Kobe, Shaq, or Duncan. I don't like rewarding athletes for things we hope/expect they will accomplish, especially difficult ones like more championships.

In my opinion, I take Jordan off the list because he was really not from the era and time frame we are talking about. He was the best athlete from 1975-1995 (although hard to argue against Gretzky) but didn't play long enough to really qualify for this one.

1. Tiger Woods
2. Michael Phelps
3. Lionel Messi
4. Tom Brady
5t. Roger Federer
5t. Rafael Nadal

Other players I'm surprised have not been mentioned for consideration in the top-20: Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Novak Djokovich, Pete Sampras, Phil Mickelson (much less a choker than PM18), Aaron Rodgers (if Jordan's longevity suffices), Cristiano Ronaldo, Just Plain Ronaldo, Zinadine Zidane, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy.

Just my opinion. I'm sure not everyone will agree.

To me, the more fascinating time frame is 1975-1995. Pick from Jordan, Bird, Magic, Gretzky, Maradona, and Montana.

patsinthesnow said:

Tiger Woods' stretch from 2000-2008 is the most dominant stretch in the history of sports. He also fundamentally changed the image of golf.

He's 1 and nobody else is close IMO.

Click to expand...

Tiger doesn't have the most dominant stretch in the history of sports or the PGA. Byron Nelson won 11 straight golf events, Sam Snead won more than anyone and Nicklaus has more majors. Tiger isn't even close to them and likely won't ever be.

How exactly did he change the image of golf. I haven't seen that and I started watching Arnie.

OhExaulted1 said:

Tiger Woods, Golf and athlete should never be used in the same sentence.

Golf is a game, like pool or darts. Rafeal Nadal and Roger Federer would smack him into next year. Say what you want about Tennis, but you ain't winning anything if your a fat old John Daly or a 46 year old like Nicklaus was in '86.

Sorry, but golf is lame and takes up to much real estate for wanna-be rich people to go pretend they have athletic ability.

Click to expand...

You obviously either don't or can't play golf!

I'll agree it's not like football, basketball or hockey, but it's exactly on-par with baseball in my opinion.

To put it another way, one can not compare golf to darts or pool where you only have to do one thing well. In golf, it requires hundreds of various shots, finesse, power, calm and an incredible ability to deal with pressure for 4 consecutive days.

Jangles said:

You've clearly never played golf

Greatest of all time sport for greatest of all time athletes. Ask Michael Jordan and tom Brady how they feel about it

Click to expand...

Yeah, OK. Great argument. Didn't they do something else before launching a career into the "Greatest of all time sport for greatest of all time athletes"?

You've clearly never experienced anything remotely considered a sport.

Swimmers can win more medals in the Olympics because they can swim in more events. If Tom Brady got to train for and play in 12 different football championships every four years, instead of one each year, he could rack up some pretty hefty win totals.