Favorite athletes by sport

[Kodos]

Here's your chance to list your favorite athlete in each sport. My favorites are:

NFL - Dan Marino
NCAA Football - Antwaan Randle El
NBA - Charles Barkley
NCAA Basketball - Calbert Cheaney


Who are your favorites in each sport (I didn't include hockey or baseball because I don't really have any favorites).

[44Niners]

NFL - Tom Rathman
MLB - Willie McCovey
NBA - Tim Hardaway
NHL - Owen Nolan

[ACStrider]

NFL - Mike Singletary
MLB - Ryan Sandburg
NBA - Michael Finley
NHL - Joe Nieuwendyk

[AnalBumCover]

NFL - Peyton Manning
MLB - Pedro Martinez
NHL - Ziggy Palffy
NBA - Tim Duncan

[TLK]

NFL- Mike McMahon
C^RT- Paul Tracy

MLB- Johnny Grubb
NHL- Doug Gilmore
NBA- Ivano Newbill

[Lathum]

NHL-Martin Brodeur
NFL- Tiki Barber
MLB-Mike Piazza

[Hawaii Warrior]

NFL - Jerry Rice
NCAA Football - Ashley Lelie
NBA - Pistol Pete Maravich
NCAA Basketball - Predrag Savovic

[sterlingice]

MLB: all-time Ryne Sandberg and I loved the quartet that included him, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson, and Greg Maddux in the late 80s/early 90s; also the Houston duo of Bags and Biggio
NHL: unfortunately all of my favorites have flown the coop of the Hakws- Chelly to the hated Wings, JR to Phoenix and now Philly, and Eddie the Crazy Eagle to Dallas and now Toronto
NFL: all-time Warren Moon, currently Brian Urlacher
NBA: all-time Hakeem Olajuwon, currently- well, any good Rockets: Stevie Franchise, Yao, Cuttino Mobley

SI

[Schmidty]

Current:

NBA - Ben Wallace
NFL - Joey Harrington
MLB - Sammy Sosa
NHL - Pavel Datsyuk
NCAA - Chris Hill

All-Time:

NBA - Bill Laimbeer
NFL - Barry Sanders
MLB - Chet Lemon
NHL - Steve Yzerman
NCAA - Mateen Cleaves

[JeeberD]

NBA: Tim Hardaway
NFL: Emmitt (even as a Cardinal...)
NHL: Used to be Doug Weight, but now George Laraque. He's a badass...
MLB: Hard to choose between Bagwell and Biggio, but if I had to, I guess I would go with Bags
NCAA Hoops: Tim Hardaway (Wow, that sounds familiar)
NCAA Gridiron: Being a UTEP fan, we've rarely had good players come through here. That being said, Brian Natkin (All-American TE during our last bowl year) rocks!!!

[bbor]

Present

NHL:Todd Bertuzzi
NFL:Jerry Rice
NBA:Steve Nash
MLB:Vernon Wells
PGA:Mike Weir

Alltime
NHL:Bobby Orr
NFL:Joe Montana
NBA: Dr.J
MLB: Dave Steib
PGA:Jack Niklaus

[Ragone]

Present
Nhl:Vincent Lacaviler
NFL:L. Tomlinson
Nba:Micheal Finley
Mlb:Mike Sweeney
Ncaa Hoops:Fransisco Garcia(Louisville)
Ncaa Footballeliminating anyone who was just drafted):Eli Manning
Pga:Anyone who beats Tiger woods
European Football(aka soccer): Wayne Rooney
Pba(heh) Pete Weber

All-time
Nhl:Wayne Gretzky
Nfl:Walter Payton
Nba:That Jordan Character
Mlb:Bob Gibson
Ncaa Hoops:Pervis ellison(!)
Ncaa Footballave Ragone(i'll never forget watching that fsu game.. ever)
Pga:Anyone who beats tiger woods
European football:Pele!
Pba:Earl Anthony

[MrBug708]

MLB-Brett Butler. He was the prototype CF/lead off hitter/clubhouse leader

NFL-Who cares

NBA-Mike Penberthy

Soccer-Cobi Jones

NHL-Paul Kariya

NCAA-Earl Watson when he was at UCLA right there with Cade

[Karim]

NHL: Mark Messier
NFL: Offense: Joe Montana Defense: Mike Singletary Current: Jeff Garcia
MLB: John Olerud

[Neuqua]

NBA - Michael Jordan
MLB - Sammy Sosa
NFL - Brian Urlacher
NCAA Hoops - Shane Battier
NHL - Pavel Bure

[digamma]

Current:
NFL: Keith Brooking or Ladanian Tomlinson
NCAA: Darryl Smith
NBA: Dirk Nowitzki
NCAA Hoops: B.J. Elder
MLB: Tom Glavine/Javy Lopez

All Time:
NFL: Barry Sanders
NCAA: Joe Hamilton
NBA: Dominique Wilkins
NCAA Hoops: Travis Best
MLB: Dale Murphy
Professional Wrestling: Ivan & Nikita Koloff and the Road Warriors

[Terps]

Currently:

MLB - Jay Gibbons
NFL - Jeremy Shockey
NBA - Juan Dixon
NHL - Jaromir Jagr or Peter Bondra
NCAA FB - Bruce Perry
NCAA BB - Ryan Randle

All-Time:

MLB - Cal Ripken Jr.
NFL - Lawrence Taylor
NBA - Wes Unseld
NHL - Joe Juneau
NCAA FB - E.J. Henderson
NCAA BB - Dixon or Steve Francis

[Vince]

NFL: Joe Montana
NHL: Wayne Gretzky
NBA: Michael Jordan
MLB: Matt Williams

[oykib]

Current

MLB - Derek Jeter
NFL - Jerry Rice
NBA - Alan Houston
Sumo - Chiyotaikai

All-time

MLB - Rickey Henderson and Willie Randolph
NFL - Marcus Allen
NBA - Patrick Ewing
Sumo - Takanohana
Olympics - Carl Lewis
NCAA Football - Tommie Frazier

[Honolulu_Blue]

NFL: Chris Spielman
NHL: Steve Yzerman
NBA: Joe Dumars
MLB: John Smoltz

[GrantDawg]

NFL: Steve Bartkowski (remember 1980 when he threw that 75 yard pass, threading the needle between two defenders, right into Jackson's hands?)
Honorable mention: William Andrews (the man was just untackable. At least till his knees blew-out.)

College Football: Hershel Walker (did you really have to ask? Hershel and Andrews burst into the scene the same year on two different levels. They along with Bart helped make me a life-long football fan. They also ruined me for Running backs because none have ever measured up in my mind to those two as they played that year.)
Honorable Mention: David Pollack (If I weren't a football fan, that kid would make me one. That fumble/interception/feat of impossibility on Jenkins of SC was just shear jaw-dropping. The guy was everywhere on defense, just a playmaker.)


MLB: Dale Murphy (What can you say about the Murph? I wish he finished his career in the big A and would have gotten a ring, though neither could have happened. )
Honorable mention: Gregg Maddux (Maddog's never blew people off the plate. He doesn't seem to have the best stuff in the world. He just plain pitches and pitches well.)


I haven't been a fan of soccer long enough to have a real favorite, so
Honorable Mentions: Brian McBride/Demarcus Beasley/Eddie Pope (A target man with aerial ability, a winger with great speed and good crossing, and a big solid centerback. Some of my favorite parts of soccer along with an amazing hole man.)

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmmmm....tough question....I'll answer in terms of "favorite guy to watch"

Baseball:
1. Bonds (the man can HIT!)
2. Ozzie (back flips, bare-handed plays, Wow )
3. Deion (was there anything as exciting as watching him turn on the jets and get a triple when he hit one into the gap???)
4. Kirby Puckett (he just KILLED us in '91, but man he was a gamer in that series)
5. Glavine (stonefaced quintessential competitor)

Football:
1. Vick (the most exicting player in the game today)
2. Deion (again, that pure speed was just fun to watch)
3. Thomas Brown (This kid will be a Senior at Tucker High School this fall. I was in the stands in a game this year when I overheard an old man say "That boy run so good, it make your DICK hard!" I have a feeling that Thomas will be a special, special player. He's also a GREAT kid, pastor's son, good student, etc., etc. etc.)
4. Lynn Swann
5. Walter Payton

Basketball:
1. Jordan
2. Dr. J
3. Magic
4. Bird
5. Worthy

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by SkyDog
"That boy run so good, it make your DICK hard!"

Incidentally, I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I laughed when I heard that one.

[Alf]

NBA : Michael Jordan
NFL : Joe Montana
NHL : Wayne Gretzky
Soccer : Zinedine Zidane

PS to Vince : as a Californian guy, I'm surprised you didn't pick Magic Johnson as your fav NBA guy.

[MizzouRah]

I'm only naming one person for each, but I have many:

NBA: Larry Bird (back in the day when I liked pro ball)
NHL: Brett Hull
MLB: Jack Clark
NFL: Marshall Faulk

Coach: Whitey Herzog


Todd

[EagleFan]

Current:
NFL: Donovan McNabb
NHL: Paul Kariya
NBA: Allen Iverson
MLB: Jim Thome
NASCAR: Tony Stewart
NLL: Dallas Eliuk
PGA: Tiger Woods

All-Time:
NFL: Barry Sanders
NHL: Tim Kerr
NBA: Charles Barkley
MLB: Mike Schmidt
NASCAR: Tony Stewart
NLL: Chris Flynn
PGA: Tiger Woods

[Radii]

Current:

NFL: Eh. Emmitt I guess. Or Julius Peppers.
MLB: Sammy Sosa
NBA: Rick Fox
College Basketball: Raymond Felton

All Time:
NFL: Tony Dorsett/Danny White
MLB: Ryne Sandberg/Rick Sutcliffe
NBA: Magic Johnson
College Basketball: Kenny Smith, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Rick Fox, Antawn Jamison, Jeff Lebo

[Anrhydeddu]

Just think, I used to have the utmost respect for SkyDog. But after listing the likes of Bonds, Deion, Vick, Jordan...I can only shake my head in sadness at his superficiality.

MLB: Tony Gwynn
NFL: Joe Namath/Kurt Warner
NHL: Bobby Orr/Patrick Roy
NBA: Wilt Chamberlain/Larry Bird
College Football: OJ
PGA: Greg Norman

[CamEdwards]

In order of importance:

All Time:

MLB: Ted Williams.
NBA: Larry Bird
NFL: Barry Sanders

Current:

MLB: Nomar Garciaparra
NBA: Desmond Mason
NFL: Tom Brady

[condors]

present
nhl-simon gagne
mlb-jim thome
nba-alan iverson
nfl-duce staley

mls-kyle martino
epl-michael owen

nascar-jeff burton

there are too many guys for me to do a past

[Hammer755]

Current:

MLB - Greg Maddux
NFL - David Carr
NBA - Tim Duncan

All-Time:

MLB - Dale Murphy
NFL - Bernie Kosar
NBA - Larry Bird

[Buzzbee]

Current:

MLB: Greg Maddux
NFL: Keith Brooking
NHL: Danny Heatly
NBA: Grant Hill
NASCAR: Bill Elliott
NCAA Football: Darryl Smith
NCAA Basketball: Chris Bosh

All-Time:

MLB: Dale Murphy, Tony Gwynn, Hank Aaron (too tough to call)
NFL: Kellen Winslow, Roger Staubach
NHL: Gretzky
NBA: Mark Price, Larry Bird
NASCAR: Cale Yarborough
NCAA Football: Joe Hamilton, Pat Swilling
NCAA Basketball: John Salley, Kenny Anderson

[Craptacular]

Current:
NFL - Brett Favre
College football - Anthony Davis, Lee Evans
NASCAR - Matt Kenseth
CART/IRL - Michael Andretti (although he's retiring)
MLB - bah
NBA - not really into it anymore, but I'd probably say Michael Finley (it probably was Ray Allen until he got traded)
Golf- Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples (way to win it on Sunday Freddie!)

All-time:
NFL - LT, Brett Favre
College football - Ron Dayne
NASCAR - Alan Kulwicki
CART - Michael Andretti
MLB - Paul Molitor
NBA - Dominique Wilkins, Magic Johnson
Golf - Phil and Freddie

[clintl]

All-Time:

MLB - Willie McCovey
NFL - Joe Montana
NBA - Nate Thurmond
NHL - Wayne Gretzky
Tennis - Chris Evert
Golf - Jack Nicklaus
Auto Racing - Al Unser Sr.

Current:

MLB - Barry Bonds
NFL - Jeff Garcia
NBA - Mike Bibby
NHL - Brett Hull
Tennis - Lindsay Davenport
Golf - Annika Sorenstam
Auto Racing - Sarah Fisher

[Katon]

Soccer: Gianfranco Zola
Baseball: Carlos Beltran
Football: Peyton Manning

[MylesKnight]

Favorite NBA on ESPN Studio Host of All-Time: Tim Hardaway

[Marmel]

NFL: Phil Simms
NBA: Dan Marjerle
NHL: Geoff Sanderson
MLB: Derek Jeter
NCAA: Carmelo Anthony, Mike Hopkins

[Swaggs]

NFL: More of a Steelers Team Fan
NBA: Karl Malone
MLB: Bill Madlock
NHL: Mario Lemieux
NCAA FB: Major Harris

[Blade]

Current:
NFL: Donovan McNabb
NHL: Chris Pronger
NBA: Steve Nash
MLB: Torii Hunter
PGA: Mike Weir

All-Time:
NFL: Steve Young
NHL: Mark Messier (As an Oiler only!)
NBA: Charles Barkley
MLB: Nolan Ryan
PGA: Jack Nicklaus

[Jets80]

NFL - Wayne Chrebet
NBA - Keith Van Horn
MLB - Mike Piazza
NASCAR- Tony Stewart

[Ryche]

Current:
NFL - Brett Favre (it's painful admitting that)
MLB - Greg Maddux
NHL - Miroslav Satan
NBA - John Stockton

All Time (or past 20 years)
NFL - Randall Cunningham
MLB - Ozzie Smith
NHL - Dominik Hasek
NBA - Magic Johnson

I deliberately avoided the Minnesota teams as I am very biased in their favor.

Other favorites:
Tecmo Football - Christian Okoye - Watch the defenders fly.
Pool Player - Jeanette Lee - Nothing better than watching the Black Widow bend over a pool table.

[TroyF]

All-Time:

NFL- John Elway
MLB- Kirby Puckett (an idol fallen)
NBA- Magic
NHL- Ray Bourqe

Current:

NFL- Kurt Warner, Michael Vick and Brian Urlacher
MLB- Don't watch a lot anymore, Sosa or Pedro are a joy to watch when I do.
NBA- KG, Duncan, Dirk Niwitzki
NHL- Joe Sakik

TroyF

[TLK]

Originally posted by Craptacular

CART/IRL - Michael Andretti (although he's retiring)

Nice to see another open-wheel fan on here, although you picked the person I lose more respect for as the days go on. Maybe my dreams will be fulfilled and Andretti will lead every lap of the 500, before running out of gas and handing the win to Vasser. That would be great.

TLK

[MylesKnight]

Originally posted by Craptacular

CART/IRL - Michael Andretti (although he's retiring)

Good to see another Andretti fan among us FOFC'ers.. and it's C-Tac no less.

He is easily my favorite racer of all-time, as I've always been a CART/IRL fan, going back to the days when Michael was just a young pup on the circuit..

Is he running the full season this year or retiring after Indy? I thought I heard something about Indy being his last race..

Also, it looks as if the IRL is slowly but surely taking all of the big names away from CART (F-1 has as well on a couple of occasions).. What does the future hold? Will there still be 2 Leagues a few years from now?

[Frozenrope]

MLB- Dale Murphy (all time) Mark Prior (current)
NBA- Michael Jordan (all time) Dirk Nowitzki (current)
NFL- Walter Payton (all time) Brian Urlacher (current)
NHL - Dennis Savard (all time) Patrick Roy (current)

[bosshogg23]

Alltime

MLB - Eddie Murray
NFL - Barry Sanders
NBA - Joe Dumars
Boxing - Roy Jones Jr.

Current

MLB - Greg Maddux
NFL - Jerry Rice
NBA - Kevin Garnett
Boxing - Roy Jones Jr.

[Craptacular]

TLK and MK:

I don't follow open-wheel as much as I used to, largely because I was pissed when Tony George took Indy away and formed the IRL. The IRL had some good ideas, but I was hoping they were going to be crushed like a bug, and that we'd be back to one circuit. It'll be interesting to see what happens with these two leagues in the next couple of years.

I have liked the Andretti's for as long as I can remember anything about racing. Part of it may have been that I disliked the Unsers for whatever reason, and they were big rivals. Last I heard, Michael was retiring after Indy and focusing on his duties as an owner.

Side note: Paul Tracy admits to past cheating
Interesting article about the past use of traction control devices.

[andy m]

darts: eric bristow

snooker: steve davis

squash: del harris

wrestling: kendo nagasaki

cheese rolling: craig brown (http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/) - currently, i do not believe that any one in the field of worldwide athletics comes close to the performances of the mighty cheese roller, craig brown. and anyone who bore witness to his stunning display at the 2003 coopers hill event will certainly find themselves in full agreement with me. he is the epitomy of cheese rolling. but now that i have the chance, i also want to give credit to tim webster. the 'scrappy little white guy' who gets the job done every now and again. he might not be as flashy as his competitors but he is a clubhouse leader, and beats his chest real good. we all cheer his plucky behaviour, because although he screws up 9 times out of 10, we love him for that one time he broke his neck, and carried on rolling cheese for fully 20 more minutes. ah. the joy of the 'scrappy little white guy', if it wasn't for this unique species of athlete - sweaty, middle aged, office workers world wide would have just that little bit less to look forward to on a weekend.

archery: that dude with the bow

[TLK]

Originally posted by Craptacular
TLK and MK:

I don't follow open-wheel as much as I used to, largely because I was pissed when Tony George took Indy away and formed the IRL. The IRL had some good ideas, but I was hoping they were going to be crushed like a bug, and that we'd be back to one circuit. It'll be interesting to see what happens with these two leagues in the next couple of years.

I have liked the Andretti's for as long as I can remember anything about racing. Part of it may have been that I disliked the Unsers for whatever reason, and they were big rivals. Last I heard, Michael was retiring after Indy and focusing on his duties as an owner.

Andretti will be retiring after Indy. A theory is that he afraid to run Texas Motor Speedway after his last experience in CART, where the G-Forces made him dizzy

Originally posted by MylesKnight


Also, it looks as if the IRL is slowly but surely taking all of the big names away from CART (F-1 has as well on a couple of occasions).. What does the future hold? Will there still be 2 Leagues a few years from now?

Depends who you're listening to. CART has already pulled in 500,000 spectators in only the first three races, while the EARL has maybe hit 100,000. But it's the exact opposite when it comes to television ratings, where the EARL has CART beat.

I ultimately think a merger will happen. CART has their doors open to talks, but it's George that wants nothing to do with it. I think this year's 500 will be an eye-opener for him. Right now no less than four of those "stars" they stole from CART are injured and may not participate in the 500. They may not even have a full 33 car field. Just sad from where this race was 10 years ago.....


http://www.crapwagon.com A great EARL bashing site, and the forums are very informative and hilarious. Worth a look.

TLK

[DeToxRox]

Present

MLB: Vlad Guerrero
NFL: Ray Lewis
NBA: Ben Wallace
NHL: Dany Heatey
NCAA Hoops: Daniel Horton
NCAA Footbal: Marlon Jackson

All Time

MLB: Mike Schmidt
NFL: Barry Sanders
NBA: Charles Barkley
NHL: Steve Yzerman
NCAA Hoops: Jalen Rose
NCAA Football: CharlesWoodson