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I think the greatest multi-pro-sport athlete of the modern era (so post Jim Thorpe) was Bo Jackson. Perhaps his two most amazing moments herewith:

Bo Scales The Wall In Baltimore

Bo Jackson 91-Yard Run vs. Seahawks, Nov 30, 1987

And, this was incredible too:

Bo: The Throw

Finally, for those interested, ESPN did an excellent "30 for 30" documentary, which covers the entirety of his amazing but tragically truncated career. The documentary has been removed from YouTube, but you can still probably find it somewhere:

"30 for 30 Film 'You Don't Know Bo' is ESPN's Highest-Rated Documentary" by Jennifer Cingari on espnmediazone.com

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As someone who has always favored football over baseball, I feel cheated as a fan that we didn't get to see him play more football. He really could have gone down as an all-time great in football. My understanding was that he was a good baseball player and, obviously, his athleticism allowed him to have some great moments, but that he wasn't ever really considered a great baseball player. Most people assume he would have been a Pro Football HOF lock had he only played football and had a long enough career. Is it the same for baseball?

As you may be able to tell from my avatar, there's the same cheated feeling with Sean Taylor. Taylor was another guy who just had that freakish athletic ability. Not quite on Bo's level, but still off the charts. And, more importantly, I considered Taylor one of "mine" since I'm a huge Redskins fan. It's a great feeling being a fan of a winning team. It's a different great feeling to have a great player on your favorite team.

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A couple other things:

1) Jim Brown is supposedly one of the greatest lacrosse players to ever live, maybe even "The Greatest" (*)

2) Wilt Chamberlain was supposedly one of the greatest volleyball players in the world (can you imagine being spiked on by him?)

(*) Why ESPN chose only to give Brown's Lacrosse a mere passing glance in their "Finals" of the Greatest Athlete Of The 20th Century, when they pitted Brown against Jackson, is beyond me.

I might vote for Jackson myself, but if Jackson hadn't gotten hurt, who knows? His injury might have actually helped his cause. I also don't think Bo's "up the wall" run was any big deal at all - my best friend in junior high school did that to evade me when I was chasing him and had him trapped in a corridor. He ran up the right wall, and I ran towards him, then coming down, he ran up the left wall, and by then it was too late - he escaped back through the passage where we had come in (what he did could be diagrammed something like this Butterfly Inversion (where the bottom of the picture is where we ran into the corridor). I couldn't believe he did it, but he was just some 13 year old kid (granted, a great, multi-sport athlete, but I suspect any skateboarder could do such a thing). We had a basketball pole in our back yard, and I watched my brother (very good in sports through hard work, but a very average natural athlete) - run up to it, plant a foot on the rectangular, wooden pole (which ran up from the ground several inches behind the backboard), and spring up to dunk the basketball. I was about 12 years old, and yes, I was amazed because I was watching from a distance, but my point is that a lot of people can take their forward momentum and transfer it upwards - Jackson even dismisses its significance in that video as something like 'not that big a deal.' I guess it's sort of like Tiger Woods bouncing a golf ball off his club - just something you pick up when you're a kid playing outside - although I admit that video is pretty impressive.

The greatest post-Jim Thorpe multi pro sport athlete? I'd probably give the edge to Deion Sanders.

The greatest post-Jim Thorpe multi pro sport athlete? Jim Brown

If we're going to start including people like Deion Sanders, then we need to include people like:

1) The only person ever drafted by 4 teams in 3 sports: MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the ABA.

2) College World Series Champion and College World Series MVP as a pitcher

3) Drafted as the #4 pick in the 1st Round by MLB

4) 12-Time MLB All-Star, 7-Time Gold Glove Award, and MLB Hall of Fame

5) The #17 pick by the NFL even though he didn't play college football

6) Big 10 Basketball Champion whom his coach called "the best rebounder he ever coached"

7) Drafted in the 5th Round of the NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks

8) Drafted in the 4th Round of the ABA Draft by the Utah Stars

Name that athlete!

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Interesting JPW's nod to Sanders over Jackson. I'd respectfully disagree but this us very much matter-of-opinion stuff.

Sanders clearly accomplished more but because his career ran its full course. Also think Sanders was a bit more unidimensional with success in both sports more reliant on speed versus the broader set of skills Jackson displayed.

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A couple other things:

1) Jim Brown is supposedly one of the greatest lacrosse players to ever live, maybe even "The Greatest" (*)

2) Wilt Chamberlain was supposedly one of the greatest volleyball players in the world (can you imagine being spiked on by him?)

(*) Why ESPN chose only to give Brown's Lacrosse a mere passing glance in their "Finals" of the Greatest Athlete Of The 20th Century, when they pitted Brown against Jackson, is beyond me.

If we're going to start including people like Deion Sanders, then we need to include people like:

1) The only person ever drafted by 4 teams in 3 sports: MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the ABA.

2) College World Series Champion and College World Series MVP as a pitcher

3) Drafted as the #4 pick in the 1st Round by MLB

4) 12-Time MLB All-Star, 7-Time Gold Glove Award, and MLB Hall of Fame

5) The #17 pick by the NFL even though he didn't play college football

6) Big 10 Basketball Champion whom his coach called "the best rebounder he ever coached"

7) Drafted in the 5th Round of the NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks

8) Drafted in the 4th Round of the ABA Draft by the Utah Stars

Name that athlete!

Interesting thread and comments for folks who like to ruminate and spend a lot of air time discussing sports.  I'm one of those folks.

The above threads got me thinking...

as to the reference to Jim Brown and lacrosse, I'd simply like to add that probably the greatest athletes are NOT in lacrosse.  (If they are that great and motivated they'll probably migrate to a sport with big money and big time professional sports.).   Brown played lacrosse in the 1950's probably before most of the lacrosse commentators could have seen him.  I'd bet he was so extraordinarily physically dominant over others it wasn't close.  Having watched a couple of the other so called "greatest ever" in the sport, including Frank Urso a former 4 time first team all american in lacrosse, it was so obvious Urso was extraordinarily dominant over all the competition.  He seemed like a threat to score on EVERY play.  I think there was a huge and significant difference between his speed, strength and explosiveness versus the competition.   Its visible every so often in lacrosse.  I just don't think it attracts the elite of the elite.

Now as to the reference to Dave Winfield, it sparked a different thought process.   I recently heard from a very old friend, with whom I grew up in a small NJ town.  We are age peers of Dave Winfield and my old friend classmate played Big 10 baseball at the same time as Winfield.

My friend was good in college....but in the baseball draft..he wasn't drafted.  He expected to be but wasn't.  I suppose that means the pro teams considered several hundred college and high school players better than my old classmate.

When in high school he had to be one of the best all around athletes in New Jersey when graduating;  First team all-state baseball, first team all conference and county in basketball (albeit a smallish suburban lily white town) and some kind of all state mention;  Again all conference, all county, and probably all state mention as  a soccer goalie.   A baseball scholarship to a Big 10 school and started on their team.

But.....not good enough to get drafted into the MLB.  He joined the Secret Service and I heard from his work peers he was their best athlete (probably in a world of good athletes)....but not good enough to get to the pros.

There are levels of elite athleticism and they keep getting better to reach the elite of the elite.  Its pretty astonishing.

On a similar level I was friendly with the person who followed John Lucas as #1 in tennis at U Md.   Per his own admission this terrific player couldn't touch Lucas...but he was clearly great...great enough to play #1 singles at a big time college.

Now Lucas was an elite multi sport athlete.  An all american tennis player, a two time first team all american basketball player and drafted #1 in the NBA when he graduated from college.   Basketball kept Lucas from seriously pursuing tennis.  How great might he have been if he only pursued tennis?  Nobody, including Lucas, knows.

As a basketball player he was excellent with a long career, though it was hampered by drugs and alcoholism.  I looked him up.  Lucas is currently ranked 23 all time in assists.  Many among those with more assists played after him.  He was noted as one of the very very few elite guards with such amazing ball control, he could get to any place on the court at any time, a master of dribbling.

But he didn't reach the elite of the elite.

The level at the top is rarefied.  Its astonishing to watch them and to watch those that are still astonishing but just below the greatest of the greatest.

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