• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Overrated athletes

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Albatross said:
Bo Jackson

For someone talked about so much, some of most unremarkable stats ever. His NFL career season avg's rival Bilal Powell's. He'd be an undrafted permanent fantasy waiver wire player if he existed now... Capable of making a big play once in a while, but not worth drafting. Like Leon Washington.
Click to expand...
Are you mad? He was an All-Star in both leagues for crying out loud.

If he dedicated himself to one sport he probably would've been in the Hall of Fame.
 
terrisus said:
Complaining about Gerrard is silly, considering all the chances that Rooney was handed that he wasted.
Yeah, he finally scored one, but anyone else who had been given half the chances he's been given would have scored plenty.

Luis Suarez is otherworldly.
Click to expand...

pls

Gerrard would have even missed Rooney's goal
 
You know what....for over rated I don't think ANY player even touches Matt Cassell.

When he played for the Chiefs he was the 3rd highest paid QB in the league, behind Peyton and......someone I don't remember. He was terrible too....I mean not that he had a team behind him...but still
 
bigmf said:
derek-jeter-scouting-report.jpg
Click to expand...

if by overrated you mean one of the greatest short stops of all time...then sure!
 
daw840 said:
You know what....for over rated I don't think ANY player even touches Matt Cassell.

When he played for the Chiefs he was the 3rd highest paid QB in the league, behind Peyton and......someone I don't remember. He was terrible too....I mean not that he had a team behind him...but still
Click to expand...
Hopefully they let Bridgewater or Cassel throw the ball this year instead of handing it to Peterson as many times as the have been doing.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=117326996&postcount=66
 
I love how the Pro-Bo crowds can't argue with the stats, they just say things like "he was a freak of nature" or "he played two sports!" "lol no!"

His career numbers are below average even for middle of the road NFL players. His career numbers are below average for any Major League starter (he batted what.. .245 career?). 600 yards rushing a season, 3 - 5 touchdowns, less than 100 yards receiving. The arguments that "Well LA didn't play him, it's their fault, but he's still the best" are insane. We're talking about an owner who would start Darius Heyward Bey, Jamarcus Russel, and Terrell Pryor ... You think they'd sit the most athletic player in the league for no reason? An owner who did not get along, at all, with his All Pro running back Marcus Allen, who looked for excuses to not play him or pay him... Yet he'll only let the coaching staff give Bo Jackson 140 carries and 5 receptions.

This argument also goes hand in hand with his average numbers. Yes, Bo Jackson has remarkably high average yards per rush, but at a remarkably low total rush attempts per season, and at a remarkably total rushes in his career. If he were an every down back like any other great running back, he'd be getting carries in circumstances where you aren't likely to gain as many yards, and that brings your average down. People will also come out with Jackon's 200+ yards in a single game and how awesome that is... Sure, great achievement. Other players who ran roughly the same? Clinton Portis, Corey Dillon, Fred Jackson, Tiki Barber, Chris Johnson, Knowshon Moreno. A lot of solid names on that list -- almost all of them are well above Bo Jackson in just about every level -- but nobody drudges up Tiki Barber when coming up with some "Greatest of all time..." list. People do do that with Bo JAckson, which is precisely why he's over-rated.

It's sad that Bo Jackson's career was cut short by an injury, but you can't project out a level of production that just wasn't there at any time in his career and pretend like he would have accomplished so much more. He never gained 1,000 yards in a season, he never had more than 6 total touchdowns in a season (never more than 5 rushing touchdowns). Sure, some of his lack of production can be blamed on having all pro running back Marcus Allen in front of him for three years, but if he were clearly better than Marcus Allen -- a guy who himself had issues with Al Davis and was done no favors by the Raiders -- then he would have gotten more starts, more touches, more production. And further, you can't reward a player in the NFL for that. Last season, Stevan Ridley did not get carries in New England because he had a few key fumbles and because Lagarret Blount worked harder and performed better than him ... In a retrospective of Ridley's career nobody should say "Well, Ridley should have had an extra 1,000 yards on his career totals because the Patriots played Blount -- a less athletic running back -- ahead of him in 2013." Further, players get injured in the NFL and that isn't something that you can give them extra-credit for. Part of being great in the NFL is being lucky enough to not sustain a major injury that takes you out. If Curtis Martin or Emmitt Smith had career ending injuries 4 years into their careers, they wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame, they wouldn't be considered great running backs (and FWIW, both of those players are far and away better than Bo Jackson, just using them as examples). Robert Edwards had a great rookie season in 1997 or 1998... 1100+ yards rushing, 10+ touchdowns, 400 yards receiving. And unfortunately he suffered a freak accident in an all-rookie game and it ended his career. Nobody goes around saying that Robert Edwards is one of the greatest players to play the game, because he wasn't (even though his season statistics are almost double Bo Jacksons).

Bo Jackson had one truly remarkable season as a running back, and it was 1985 at Auburn. He was the best running back in College football that year. He's definitely a top 10 College football player. But his professional career in both sports was exciting but unremarkable. He's over-rated precisely because people do not look at his career numbers.

*edit*

See a few "if Bo didn't do this he would have been in the hall of fame..." comments. "If bo didnt play two sports," "if Bo didn't get injured.." "If Bo didn't have a physical condition which caused him to retire early..." "Ifs" and "Buts" are great in sports, they're a great game, but they're not candy and nuts and we aren't having a Merry Christmas. Bo Jackson got injured and retired early, it's a sad but unfortunate fact. "If Len Bias didn't do cocaine he would have been an amazing basketball player," is a fine thing to say, but you don't then say "Len Bias is the the best basketball player or top 10 basketball players" precisely because he did cocaine. You can't reward Bo Jackson for getting injured, having a physical disposition to injury, or playing two sports (which affected his production in both and prevented him from being anything other than average statistically in both). Now, are stats everything? No. But neither are highlight reals and neither are pure athletic ability. Every star has real athletic ability and every star has a wealth of career highlights. But the thing most stars have that Jackson doesn't have is worthwhile career statistics, and when you're going through the annals of sports history, statistics matter.
 
ItsThatAsianBoy said:
Rooney.
I remember when he scored that overhead kick in the EPL, everyone was wanking over it for weeks.
He's not that good.
Click to expand...

Rooney was a fantastic player culminating with his 09-10 season where he was world class before being injured. Hasn't reached that form since. Lost pace, questions about his desire, all the contract demands.
 
Everyone posting Jeter should name 10 better shortstops with better all-time stats than him. Fuck it, name 10 SS better than Jeter all-time.

I'll even give you hater throw-ins of Barry Larkin and A-Rod (who has played roughly as many games at 3B as he has at SS now). I'll even give you the all-defense Ozzie Smith pick too, so there's 3 of 10. Clearly they aren't better than Jeter, but I just want to see where the argument goes.
 
AwftRNS.jpg


Jenson Button. guy had luck one season and won the championship but everything before and after that was mediocre.
 
captmcblack said:
Everyone posting Jeter should name 10 better shortstops with better all-time stats than him. Fuck it, name 10 SS better than Jeter all-time.

I'll even give you hater throw-ins of Barry Larkin and A-Rod (who has played roughly as many games at 3B as he has at SS now). I'll even give you the all-defense Ozzie Smith pick too, so there's 3 of 10. Clearly they aren't better than Jeter, but I just want to see where the argument goes.
Click to expand...

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_SS.shtml

There's eleven of them. None of them had that 'scouting report' I posted earlier as an example of how people can be overrated.

Now where's my gift basket?
 
16IZwf.Em.56.jpeg


This guy. Doesn't have the speed he used to. That and the fact that he's not a consistent shooter makes him a liability. Bosh is better than him
 
bigmf said:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_SS.shtml

There's eleven of them. None of them had that 'scouting report' I posted earlier as an example of how people can be overrated.

Now where's my gift basket?
Click to expand...

That same metric says that Kenny Lofton is the 9th best CF of all-time.

I *know* you don't think that's true, though.
I'm not a sabermetrics hater at all, but that calculation seems a little nebulous, especially because not only does it only measure people relative to HOF counterparts, but also measures their value at a position (which makes it awkward to measure Jeter, who ONLY played SS, against a bunch of guys who spent up to half their careers at a different position).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Is coleslaw overrated?
Social Opinion Community  2
62
5K
dr_octagon replied
Sports Stupidity Thread (athletes, managers, teams, etc...)
26
2K
StreetsofBeige replied
  • Locked
World Athletics bans transgender women from competing with other women
42
3K
Maiden Voyage replied
Why are the best white athletes and fighters usually Slavic
36
3K
Relativ9 replied
Are OLED TVs overrated?
2 3
113
15K
Rbk_3 replied
Top Bottom