2011 Sportswoman & Sportsman of the Year

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

Andrew Luck.

1B, Cameron Newton.

Both would sell a lot of magazines and both epitomize the state of both ends of the football spectrum.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

Andrew Luck. Most talked about football player by people who have never watched him take a snap. Supposedly the next John Elway. SI can gamble and perhaps look like geniuses in 20 years.

Also, Kermit McManus. Best fan of sport.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

Boy, it really hasn't been much of a sports year, has it?

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

I don't know what SI's qualifications are for the award, but it seems like they've never been about making a statement (unlike big brother Time has with Man of the Year). Too bad, because Jim Delany would be a great choice this year. Delany's done next to nothing this year, but what he did with the Big 10 in 2010 -- its effects are still being felt today in a major way. Has anyone influenced college football over the last 25 years like Delany has in the last 18 months?

SI probably screwed up by never choosing Federer in his prime. It's on the verge of doing so with Jimmie Johnson. But if Johnson somehow wins his sixth straight NASCAR title, how do you give it to anyone but him? I'm still amazed that Brees won it last year ahead of Johnson AND Landon Donovan.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

I don't understand the complaint that the award "used" to mean something. The award's always had bizarre, borderline ludicrous choices.

Read The Franchise and there's the delightful story of how Gil Rogin basically demanded Mary Decker get it in 1983 because he was infatuated with her. Martina had a dominant year. Moses and Lewis had better years on the track. Moses Malone led the Sixers to the title. But Rogin liked Mary Decker's ass in track shorts.

Maybe they go too much for the big sports these days. But when they went out of their way to avoid them back in the day it seemed even stranger.

Two speed-skaters have won it since a boxer.

Magic should have won it in '87. First MVP, skyhook in Game 4, took over from Kareem, etc. It went to the athletes who care. Which was nice, I suppose.

How did Carl Lewis not win it when Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton did in '84?

It could be an eye-rolling choice this year. But that wouldn't really be anything new.

Still better than Time's Man of the Year. Forget the Rudy choice or even "You." In 1955 Jonas Salk introduced the polio vaccine to the world. Man of the year? Nah. That was Harlow Curtice, head of GM.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

You all are missing the obvious pick: Billy Beane!

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

George Cohen.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

If Texas had won the World Series, I could see them picking Josh Hamilton.

Pujols might win. I don't think any athlete has ever been as dominant in their 30s as Pujols ;D

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

I was going to say Goodell, for "saving" football, but it seems of late they've been considering how much charitable work the pick does as well, which made Brees a shoo-in with all the Katrina relief he participates in.

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

the Japanese women's World Cup team

 

Re: 2011 Sportsman of the Year?

Don't care if Luck gets it. Just wanted to point out the best line I've read in a while.