Who is the all-time G.O.A.T. of every sport?
To start off, I would like to credit Mike Heller and Jon Oddeuss (not sure of spelling) of the Big 1070 in Madison on the Mike Heller show for this idea. They had a poll question today saying who is the GOAT of all sports (GOAT stands for greatest of all time), Michael Phelps, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, or other?
So, onto my attempt to analyze who is the best sports player of all time (I'll go back as far as 1900, because c'mon, who that is alive cares about sports before then). Phelps has cemented himself with his 21 gold medals as the greatest Olympian of all time, and should take the place of Poseidon (Phelps>Poseidon, in other words). But is he the GOAT, in all sports? I'm going to go through every sport, and sum up all Olympic sports such as ping-pong, swimming, track and field, etc (in other words, the irrelevant sports every other day of the year) as one to simplify my blog.
To start, Phelps is the greatest non-team sport athlete of all time, and the greatest participant. I probably haven't even won blackjack 21 times, and yet Phelps has 21 gold medals, and could get 22 tomorrow. Not only that, but Phelps beats his own records, and has destroyed the records of those before him. Phelps will remain untouched in Olympic lore, and despite the significance of what Jesse Owens did in the 1940 Olympics (I think, it could be 1936), Phelps is better from a competition perspective, which is what I care about. Jesse Owens does not have 21 gold medals, Phelps does. And, does anybody even remember any other Olympian sport athlete from 2008, or even 2012 besides Phelps, that is not in the Olympics? Point proven.
On to basketball, and I'll have to step aside from Mike Heller here and go with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not only is he the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, a feat LeBron might not even catch, he has the same number of rings as Michael Jordan, and the first was with Milwaukee. Kareem, then Lew Alcindor, took a very young franchise and helped it win a title in its' second year of existence. No franchise has done that, and, despite Oscar Robertson being on the Bucks, it would not have happened without Kareem. Kareem was also on every single Magic Johnson championship in LA, and had a shot, the "jump hook" that was considered unstoppable. Kareem is the NBA/ABA GOAT.
In baseball, I'll go back all the way to the 1920s, and go with the Sultan of Swat, the Great Bambino, George Herman "Babe" Ruth. He was the first great athlete, the first superstar, and if Babe Ruth had a shoe back then, it would be what Jordan's shoes are now. Despite playing back in the 1910s, 20s and 30s, he is still third all time on the home run board with 714 home runs. That record stood until Hank Aaron broke it in the 70s, and despite having a legendary career, he did not have the impact the Babe had. Also, Ruth was a dominant pitcher prior to switching over to the outfield, and could have been a combination of Cy Young and Sandy Koufax had he stayed pitching. And we can't forget his famous "call it" home run, or the numerous titles with the Yankees.
In hockey (which I don't know much about, so bear with me) Wayne Gretzky remains the Great One. He leads hockey records for points, assists and goals, and has four titles with Edmonton. That's all I know about him, but if I'm not mistaken, those are the important hockey stats, and Gretzky leads them all. He is the GOAT for hockey.
The NFL is tricky, since there are so many different guys from so many different eras you could go with. Tom Brady, Bart Starr or Joe Montana could all be considered a GOAT. So could Brett Favre, Peyton Manning or John Elway. And that's just the quarterback position, disregarding the Walter Payton's or Barry Sanders' or Reggie White's of the world. There is no GOAT of the NFL yet, and there probably never will be because of how the system is set up. If I was forced to pick one, it would be Brett Favre, just because he broke all the records during his career and had the stamina to play every game. I'm also a biased Packer fan, but I still stand by there is no clear-cut GOAT, or anyone close to it.
So, for the sports GOAT of all-time, I'll ask one question. Where do GOATS come from, who first made that term a reality? In other words, Babe Ruth is the GOAT, period. He has dominance that is still unchecked by baseball players today, and only Hank Aaron has even matched his stats (outside of Barry Bonds, who I believe cheated the game), but not his impact. No team sport will win 21 titles like Phelps has, but team sports are set up differently. The man still has seven championships, a .342 batting average, 714 HR and much more. I'm sure there are still records today that he holds, and the fact that he has been dead since 1948 and people still talk about him this much shows his greatness.
