For as long as sport has existed, there has been argument over who the greatest athlete is. Usually, this argument stays within a specific sport, examples being Messi-Ronaldo, Bird-Magic, Brady-Manning, or Michael Jordan against everyone else. However, I don’t see many arguing over who is the best, all sports considered, so I set out to voice my opinion on the matter. The morning of Super Bowl Sunday, I sat down, preparing to write this article, considering many great athletes who have each dominated their sport. From Jordan to Bill Russell to Jim Thorpe and Jim Brown, each sport has had many eras wherein certain players dominate, so it is difficult to discern who the greatest is in any given sport, let alone all combined. However, when I started to come up with a list of players—Jordan, Pelé, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods—I felt that it was not the time to do such a ranking, as the seventh Super Bowl appearance of one of football’s all-time greats had not yet occurred. After the insane victory for Brady and his Patriots, I had to reconsider.
After much thought, I have decided that the two greatest athletes of all time, who revolutionized their sports and dominated them, are the aforementioned Brady and Babe Ruth. I have chosen these men in no small part due to their accumulation of accolades, with Ruth winning no less than seven World Series championships and Brady earning his fifth Super Bowl victory on February 6. Additionally, both have revolutionized their roles and how they were perceived. Ruth changed baseball from a game of bunts and steals to the game we know and love today, while Brady has shown that quarterback truly is a position that is by far the most important on the field, and that a quarterback can have influence for many years beyond his prime. Ruth also has a special place in sports history for being one of the only players to successfully make the transition from pitcher to position player while excelling at both. He won at least three championships with multiple teams, and completely reversed the fortunes of his old and new teams once he was dealt. Ruth’s impact can be seen all throughout baseball history, with such players as Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and the most Ruth-like of them all, Barry Bonds. Compounding this, he leads all players in career OPS+ (on-base plus slugging) and cumulative WAR (wins above replacement).
While perhaps not having numbers as impressive as Ruth’s, Brady has a resume just as staggering. Considering the time he has played in, with some of the fiercest competition and the greatest parity in NFL history, Brady’s accomplishments are all the more astounding. Brady has won five Super Bowls to date, more than any other quarterback. He accomplished this while playing at the same time as the top-three all-time leaders in touchdowns and passing yards (Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Drew Brees), and he accomplished it without a star receiver, as the Pats never won with Moss. Brady has still put together a great portfolio of statistics, coming in at fourth in touchdowns and passing yards, and has put together the best single season by a quarterback of all time. Obviously, his greatest accomplishment is being the leader of five Super Bowl champion teams and being the best player on the best team of all time. Altogether, Brady and Ruth utterly transformed their sports into something new and much more exciting, winning many championships while they were at it. This is why they are the two greatest athletes of all.