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Who's the toughest person in professional sports?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Apr 3, 2008.

  1. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    "Toughest" is pretty broad.

    All-time? Maybe Jim Thorpe. Within the last couple years, Scott Stevens, maybe Mark Messier. Yzerman. Favre.

    Here's one most of you are too young to remember:

    Wilson is renowned for not only playing, but intercepting a pass, with casts on both hands due to broken wrists. On the September 18, 2006 edition of SportsCenter, Mike Ditka challenged Terrell Owens' toughness by not playing for 2-4 weeks due to a broken finger. He citied Wilson's interception with casts on both hands as proof of a tougher football player.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wilson
     
  2. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    Yeah, until the 90210 theme blasts through the speakers. Then you're break-dancing like David Silver, and I've got the minute hand sticking out of my ear.
     
  3. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    Tie Domi, people.
     
  4. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Please. A cementhead.
     
  5. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    For a short while, he was the only hockey player outside of the super stars I could actually remember. And it was only because of the fights.
     
  6. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    He was a sideshow, more about making his name than winning. Give me Joey Kocur any day of the week.
     
  7. Notepad

    Notepad Member

    How about Rocky Bleier?

    - After his rookie season, Bleier was drafted into the U.S. Army in December 1968, and subsequently shipped out to Vietnam in May 1969 and served with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. On August 20, 1969, while on patrol in Heip Duc, Bleier was wounded in the left thigh when his platoon was ambushed in a rice paddy. While down, an enemy grenade landed nearby, sending shrapnel into his right leg. He was later awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
    While recovering in a hospital in Tokyo, doctors told him that he would not play football again. Soon after, he received a postcard from Steelers owner Art Rooney which just read "Rock - the team's not doing well. We need you. Art Rooney". Bleier later said "When you have somebody take the time and interest to send you a postcard, something that they didn't have to do, you have a special place for those kind of people".
    One year after being wounded, Bleier reported to Steelers training camp. Upon his return, he couldn't walk without being in pain, and weighed only 180 pounds (82 kg). He spent two full years trying to regain a spot on the active roster, and was even waived on two occasions. But Bleier never gave up, and said that he worked hard so that "some time in the future you didn't have to ask yourself 'what if?'".
    An offseason training regimen brought Bleier back to 212 pounds in the summer of 1974. From that point in time, he would be in the Steelers' starting lineup.
     
  8. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    I don't see Villarreal on this list.
     
  9. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    I'l go with Ronnie Lott or Jack Youngblood. You play on a broken leg, you are HARD!

    You've got to give Favre love as well.

    I think Marty Cordova might be the exact opposite of these guys.
     
  10. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    The question was toughest, not dumbest, person in professional sports.
     
  11. Overrated

    Overrated Guest

    Right on, HB. We always used to argue who'd win a fight between Kocur and Probert in their primes.

    Also, if McNair is getting love, Leftwich has to get mentioned for his broken leg performance.

    Iverson was the first person I thought of when I saw the thread title.
     
  12. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    Wow. Probert vs. Kocur, in their primes. That'd be one hell of a fight.
     
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