Samuel Casey
Editor in Chief
Around this same time every year, I hear a lot of talk about goats. Maybe it’s farming season or some other agriculture phenomenon I’m unaware of, but I noticed it seems to surround this guy, Tom Brady. Brady, the ageless wonder, competed in the Super Bowl last Sunday for the tenth time, leading the obscure Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an easy victory over last year’s champion the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9. As a result, he won his seventh ring — more than any franchise, let alone player — and fifth Super Bowl MVP. Impressive stats, I must admit, but does this make him the greatest athlete of all time? No way. In fact, the only ground I’m willing to concede is that Brady is probably the greatest quarterback of all time. So, who do I put in that top spot? Serena Williams? Mia Hamm? LeBron or Tiger or Usain? All great options, but the real answer to sports’ ultimate question is impossible. Tom Brady is not the greatest athlete of all time because the greatest athlete cannot be determined. Of course, one could come up with a set of widely agreed upon criteria and could try to put together a list. I’m sure it would be a well-done list with very athletic people. However, it still falls short from being an acceptable answer to the impossible question. There are three reasons for this: era of play, gender biases and incompatibility of sports.
First, the era of play is a big factor in who we deem as the greatest athletes. In golf, we choose Tiger Woods over Bobby Jones. In basketball, LeBron over Bill Russell. Tom Brady over Otto Graham. There’s a chance you don’t even recognize the second names in each example! Sports have a recency bias, and it’s not for lack of reason. Different sports usually have different eras with different rules, so it makes sense to focus on the most modern iteration. However, this does not make it fair. If a player from the olden days played with modern rules and had access to new technology and equipment, who’s to say that they would not be just as good, if not better? When determining the greatest athlete, we put too much emphasis on when a person was born (which is just pure chance). It also works the other way. When someone ranks a previous generation athlete higher, the era was often so different that trying to compare is difficult and unconvincing.
The second point surrounds the infamous battle of the sexes. There is research showing that athletes who identify as male are scientifically stronger than comparable athletes who identify as female. There are a lot of flaws with this, but there is some physical and chemical truth as well. That means you end up with one of two options: separate lists for male and female athletes, or a co-ed list with only men occupying the top spots. Even if we could accept one or both of these options, it doesn’t take into account the gender biases sports journalists have when discussing athletes. Because of past discrimination, sports are male-centric. They get more attention and more money since they got a head start. Also, since sports still exist in the binary, how would a potentially amazing non-binary athlete be able to compete? They wouldn’t (as is the same for trans athletes who are widely excluded as well). Current rankings of athletes have been mostly done by white men and who do not view women athletes equally, consciously or not. As we work on addressing sexism, most rankings that exist should be viewed as suspect.
The final, and arguably most important, idea centers around the comparison of athletes who play different positions and sports. It’s pretty safe to say Tom Brady is a better athlete than every NFL kicker, but how do you compare him to a running back (Jim Brown), or even harder, someone who plays on the other side of the ball (Deion Sanders). This is why I wouldn’t consider Brady the best NFL player because that alone should be considered impossible under the same standard. So when people try to compare athletes of different sports, it lacks all credibility. I think there can be general arguments about what sports are harder than others, but this conversation surrounds individuals who often transcend the archetypal athlete in their sport. How can you compare Brady, a quarterback for a football team, to Simone Biles, a gravity-defying individual gymnast? You can’t. That’s why trying to award any athlete the title of “greatest” is an impossible endeavor. It’s just too subjective. Cheers to Tom for his never-ending career, but when you’re talking goats, you better leave it to the farmers.