Whitlock: "Jim Brown is the Most Important Athlete in American History"

Especially from his women.

 

That could have been so much better without the stripper talk.

It does take onions to type this, though. I gotta give him credit for that, and I agree with him on that point.

"Maybe then there would be fewer hey-look-at-me bojanglers..."

 

There you go.

 

I'm slightly younger than you, and since my country didn't really get into american football until the early 80s, I have nothing to go on with Harris as well.

Payton was one of my favorite players growing up.

 

The key word there is "young." I didn't see Babe Ruth play but I know that he was a great player. I did see Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and they were arguably the best. The point I'm making is that everyone has a reference point and for younger people, it begins with who they saw as a player.

 

I would argue that Satchel Paige is more important than Jackie Robinson. Paige was immensely popular in the Negro Leagues and paved the way for Robinson -- who probably wasn't one of the 20 best black players at the time he went into the big leagues.

 

So you never saw Walter Payton play I take it?

 

He didn't go to Syracuse on a football scholarship. This is the reason why, IMHO, he is #1.

http://www.lacrosse.org/museum/halloffame/view_profile.php?prof_id=35

I think they changed the rules of lacrosse for Brown because when he cradled against his chest, the ball could not be taken away.

 

First name I thought of when I saw the title of this thread was Jesse Owens...

 

For whatever reason, I don't think Brown is looked at the same way as Babe Ruth or even Hank Aaron and he really should be.

 

That's because football records don't carry the same importance with sports fans that baseball records do.

 

I've covered a couple of Walter Payton games. He was good. Jim Brown was better. No argument in my opinion.