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>>That’s a highly cultural-specific viewpoint. What is? That the NFL has the best athletes in the world? If the NFL athletes trained for a year to do anything

>>That’s a highly cultural-specific viewpoint. What is? That the NFL has the best athletes in the world? If the NFL athletes trained for a year to do anything else, or you put all the athletes in the world into a decathalon of power/speed/strength specific events, it would be an insane blowout. NFL players would crush every other group of athletes individually and probably combined, and I say this as someone who has worked with Rugby Union and AFL players in Australia. There is no comparison, they are the best athletes in the world for any fair value of athletics you want to use.

jacobolus 9y ago
How about a literal decathlon? But come on, there are tremendous differences difference between the body types and skills involved in swimming, gymnastics, bobsled, trick snowboarding, 100 meter dash, marathon, boxing, sumo, table tennis, basketball, archery, rock climbing, ballet, ... https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF You can’t just say “these particular athletes matching a particular archetype are ‘the best’, and could be retrained to beat anyone at anything”.
dogecoinbase 9y ago
Their horsemanship is, by and large, terrible.
dkislyuk 9y ago
"Best athlete" is a function of the event, where physical strength, speed, and agility alone do not guarantee success. Doesn't matter how much time you give to NFL players, they wouldn't outplay Giannis Antetokounmpo or LeBron James, or out-race Eliud Kipchoge, or out-dribble Messi, or out-swim Olympic swimmers, or out-climb Alex Honnold, etc. Those are all fair measures of athletic ability. Your argument might be more reasonable if you were trying to compare top NFL athletes to somebody like Ashton Eaton (world decathlon record holder).
ascorbic 9y ago
Are you saying that almost all of the best athletes in the world just happen to be born in America? Or are you claiming that the NFL training regime is so good that it allows them to beat everyone else in the world? Why would that be? It can't be the money. There's a lot more money in soccer, and unlike NFL it has a pool of talent that covers the whole world.
- eru 9y ago
  And no salary caps, and no closed-shop leagues.

jacobolus 9y ago

How about a literal decathlon? But come on, there are tremendous differences difference between the body types and skills involved in swimming, gymnastics, bobsled, trick snowboarding, 100 meter dash, marathon, boxing, sumo, table tennis, basketball, archery, rock climbing, ballet, ... https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF https://imgur.com/a/cOTTF You can’t just say “these particular athletes matching a particular archetype are ‘the best’, and could be retrained to beat anyone at anything”.

dogecoinbase 9y ago

Their horsemanship is, by and large, terrible.

dkislyuk 9y ago

"Best athlete" is a function of the event, where physical strength, speed, and agility alone do not guarantee success. Doesn't matter how much time you give to NFL players, they wouldn't outplay Giannis Antetokounmpo or LeBron James, or out-race Eliud Kipchoge, or out-dribble Messi, or out-swim Olympic swimmers, or out-climb Alex Honnold, etc. Those are all fair measures of athletic ability. Your argument might be more reasonable if you were trying to compare top NFL athletes to somebody like Ashton Eaton (world decathlon record holder).

ascorbic 9y ago

Are you saying that almost all of the best athletes in the world just happen to be born in America? Or are you claiming that the NFL training regime is so good that it allows them to beat everyone else in the world? Why would that be? It can't be the money. There's a lot more money in soccer, and unlike NFL it has a pool of talent that covers the whole world.

eru 9y ago
And no salary caps, and no closed-shop leagues.