10 of the most overrated sports legends of all-time
Neil Bulson
Since we crank out so many stories each week some really good ones get lost in the cracks. And since so many new people visit Guyism every day (thank you), we thought we’d take some time on the weekends and holidays to share a few classics that many of our newer readers may have missed.
Who’s overrated? Who’s underrated? As sports fans, we spend a lot of time asking each other and ourselves these questions. Why? Who knows? That’s not important. You might as well ask why a dog licks its own a**hole or why Canadians love Curling and Poutine. It’s just the way it is. And in that spirit, we here at Guyism have decided to enter the fray. What makes a player overrated though? Sometimes, an athlete becomes inexplicably famous even though he or she is a big ol’ butt on the field. In that case, it’s easy to point out how overrated they are. Sometimes, though, it’s a little bit trickier. Sometimes, an athlete can be great and overrated at the same time. It’s all a matter of context. This list is about both types, both those utterly undeserving of their fame and those who simply aren’t quite as great as people make them out to be. In the end, though, they all have one thing in common -– they all have a place on our list as the most overrated sports legends of all time.
10 Elvin Hayes
Elvin Hayes had a great career in the NBA. He won a title with the Washington Bullets in 1978, he was a twelve time All-Star and he average 21 points and 12.5 rebounds for his career. So why is he on this list? Because perhaps no player in NBA history had a bigger reputation for shrinking from the moment than Elvin Hayes. The Big E was famously derided throughout his career for not coming through in the clutch -– even when he won his championship with the Bullets he scored only 12 points in the deciding Game 7 and fouled out early in the 4th quarter -– and that remains his enduring legacy. That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a great player, it just means that he wasn’t great when it really mattered, and he wasn’t nearly as great as the stats and the All-Star teams would lead you to believe and that’s why he’s on this list.
9 Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick is one of the most famous race car drivers in America, and if you listen to all the hype, you would think she would be making the move to NASCAR after dominating the Indycar circuit for years and years. But the thing is, is that Danica Patrick has won only one race in her career -– an Indycar race in Japan -– and while she certainly is a capable driver, her level of fame is nowhere near commensurate with her level of success, which is kind of the whole definition of overrated, you know? Some will say that she is to be lauded for her success as a woman in a male dominated sport, and while this is true to a degree, other women, like drag racing’s Shirley Muldowney, have had similar -– or greater –- success without any of the fanfare which accompanies Patrick. So why is Danica Patrick so famous? Because she understands the celebrity side of sports stardom perhaps better than anyone else, and whether it’s through bikini shoots or godaddy.com commercials, she has managed to parlay people’s curiosity into a genuinely successful career. But all that notoriety does is draw attention to the fact that once you strip away all that fanfare, all that’s left is just another halfway decent race car driver, and that’s why she’s overrated.
8 Vince Carter
Slam dunk champion. Half man, half amazing. Vinsanity. These are all words used to describe Vince Carter. So is “Never won a damn thing.” In 13 NBA season, Vince Carter has only made the playoffs six times. And of those six times, he’s managed to get past the second round only once, last year with Orlando, when he had basically been reduced to a complimentary player. There is no doubt that Carter is ridiculously talented, but there is also no doubt that Carter basically doesn’t give a shit. He’s absolutely despised in Toronto, where he admitted to quitting on the team in order to force a trade, and he has never lived up to enormous hype which has surrounded him since early in his career. People have grown pretty wise to Carter’s fraudulent rep over the last few years, but his gaudy stats will always convince people that he was better than he was. And that’s why he’s on this list.
7 Lynn Swann
Lynn Swann is a Hall of Famer who is considered to be one of the most iconic wide receivers in NFL history. Let that sink in and then let the following sink in: in his best season, Lynn Swann caught 61 passes for 880 yards and 11 touchdowns. Think about those two statements and then try to reconcile them. You can’t. Of course, stats don’t always tell the whole story –- which has kind of been a theme prevalent throughout this list –- but they still mean something, and when it comes to Swann, the stats don’t so much lie as utterly condemn the case for his greatness. For reference’s sake, 41 players — 41! -– caught more passes this season than Swann did in his best year. His best season was approximately as good statistically as Deion Branch’s 2010 season. Again, think about that for a second. Of course, it was a different era, but even in that career year of his, Swann didn’t rank in the top five for either receptions or yardage. Lynn Swann was a fine player, an exemplar of grace who was one of the most famous members of those legendary Steelers teams of the 1970’s. But you can only argue with stats so far.
6 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is probably the most famous NASCAR driver in the world. This is because he is the son of the most beloved Nascar driver of all time. And that’s pretty much it. Okay, okay, Junior is a pretty talented driver in his own right but if he wasn’t the son of the Intimidator, well… let’s just say that he probably wouldn’t have won the award for most popular driver every year since 2003. After all, Earnhardt has never won the series championship –- his highest finish is 3rd in 2003 -– and he hasn’t finished the season in the top ten in five years. Basically, he is the male version of Danica Patrick. Yes, I am aware that this means that I am going to be driven off the road sometime soon by some wide eyed lunatic with Dale, Jr’s number 88 tattooed on his arm and forehead and who the hell even knows where else but such is the price of truth in these strange and terrible times.
5 Paul Coffey
If you look at the statistics, Paul Coffey is probably the second best defenseman of all time behind only Bobby Orr, but as we have already seen throughout this list, statistics can be a bunch of damn liars. Coffey played in a run and gun era in which it was acceptable for a defenseman to serve as virtually a fourth forward on the ice. No one was better at joining the rush than Coffey and no one put up gaudier numbers. He also won several championships as a member of the famed Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980’s and then one more with the Pittsburgh Penguins after he was traded. But here’s the thing: Coffey had teammates named Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier and later Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, so he wasn’t exactly heroically carrying mediocre teams to glory. And, perhaps more damning, both of those teams won more Stanley Cups after trading Coffey. Further, the Detroit Red Wings, for whom Coffey starred after getting traded to them by the Los Angeles Kings (Hmmm, for an all-time great, Coffey sure got traded a lot.), didn’t win the Stanley Cup until the season they traded him away, after which they went on to win back to back Cups. All this seems to point to a very talented offensive player who was never really considered indispensable by the teams he played for. And when the NHL moved to a more defensive oriented style of play in the mid to late ‘90s, Coffey immediately became irrelevant, which is kind of a problem for his reputation since he was, you know, a defenseman.
4 Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan is the greatest strikeout pitcher of all time. He also walked more batters than anyone in baseball history. And while he won 324 games in his career, good for 14th all time, he also lost 292 games, the 3rd most all time. Ryan was a workhorse who pitched for an astonishing 27 seasons, which allowed him to rack up his ridiculous numbers. He also threw 7 no-hitters –- again, the most all time -– and he set the single season mark for most strike-outs with 383 in 1973. Fittingly, he also led the league in walks that season. He never won a Cy Young despite his huge numbers, and while he won a World Series with the Mets in 1969, he only won 6 games that season and was little more than a wild relief pitcher for them. He never even sniffed the World Series after that – and remember, he played for almost 25 more years -– and in his whole career he never won more than six games more than he lost. Of course, pitching success in terms of wins and losses is heavily dependent upon the team surrounding you, but Ryan’s style also played a big part. He never learned to pitch to contact, or to rely upon his defense. He either struck everyone out or walked them. This is not to say that Nolan Ryan wasn’t a great player –- he was -– it’s just that he wasn’t as good as some of the numbers say. He was one of a kind, more of a freak of nature than anything else, and while he should be remembered for all of that, he should also be remembered as a flawed pitcher who was never quite as good as the numbers said. Then again, he did famously beat the crap out of the much younger Robin Ventura, so maybe I’m being too harsh. Who’s to say?
3 Joe Namath
Yeah, yeah, I know Joe Namath was maybe the single most important player in the merger between the NFL and AFL and I know that he is beloved for being a legendary horn-dog and degenerate. I love him for those reasons too. But as a quarterback? Eh, not so much. For his career, Namath threw 173 touchdowns –- hey, that’s good! –- but he also threw 220 interceptions, which, uh, well that’s not so good. He threw more than 20 interception in a season five times and he averaged 17 INTs a season, all while completing only 50.1% of his career passes, which… yikes! Only twice in his career -– twice! –- did he throw more touchdowns than interceptions. His ratio in those two glorious years? 18-15 and 19-17. Hardly inspiring stuff. Namath is a Hall of Famer because he got lucky after opening his big mouth and guaranteeing a Jets victory prior to Super Bowl III and for being a drunken manwhore. In that famous Super Bowl victory -– which the Jets won 16-7 -– Namath managed to avoid throwing an interception, but he also didn’t throw a touchdown. Basically, he managed to not screw up while the defense and running back Matt Snell eked out a hard fought victory for the Jets, saving Namath’s ass in the process. It may sound like I’m being tough on Namath here, but the truth is, is that I love him like a horny old goat of a father. It’s just that, well, the dude’s overrated and you simply can’t deny that.
2 Wilt Chamberlain
I’ll probably catch hell for this one. In fact, I predict that this will be the one that gets people angry at me more than any other entry on this list –- well, other than the irrational Dale, Jr. zealots anyway. But it’s true. I know I have some explaining to do, especially given Wilt’s gaudy stats, but hear me out. This is my case: Wilt is considered by most fans to be one of the two or three greatest players who ever lived. The only player put in front of him is Jordan and maybe -– maybe -– Kareem. But here’s the thing, throughout the 1960’s, Wilt famously battled Bill Russell of the Celtics and almost every time, Russell came out ahead. But does it really mean that much to always come out as second best against a great like Russell? It sure as hell does when you’re considered to be one of the two or three greatest players of all time. The greatest of the great are always the alpha dogs. Always. And the simple fact is that Chamberlain was almost always number two to Russell. Yeah, he had better regular season numbers, but when it counted, in the playoffs, Russell always managed to better Wilt. Chamberlain was infamous for being a stat whore. He needed, wanted, his points, his rebounds, his assists –- whatever. And he usually got them. I’m not arguing with that. But Wilt also played in an era when numbers as a whole were gaudy and hyper-inflated. The year that he averaged an unreal 50.9 points per game, his Warriors averaged 125.4 points per game, the most in the league. They also gave up 122.7 points per game, dead last in the league. The point is that Wilt’s greatness has to be taken in context, and the context -– the era, the constant beatings by Russell –- show that Wilt was a tremendously gifted talent, playing in a league that had never seen someone with his physical gifts, but he wasn’t Jordan and he wasn’t Kareem. He wasn’t even Russell. He was Shaquille O’Neal, and while that is a hell of a thing to be all on its own, that doesn’t make Wilt Chamberlain one of the one or two best players of all time. It just doesn’t, and that’s why he’s overrated. But no one will ever be able to take away those 20,000 women from him, which probably makes him one of the one or two greatest swordsmen of all time. I’ll give him that.
1 Phil Rizzuto
Phil Rizzuto is in the baseball Hall of Fame for one reason: he was a New York Yankee. This is the average Rizzuto season: .273 – 3 home runs – 50 RBI, with a .351 OBP and a .355 slugging percentage. In other words, the average season for this Hall of Famer was consistently below the league average. According to baseball-reference.com, here are the five players most similar to Rizzuto: Art Fletcher, Billy Rogell, Lonny Frey, Billy Jurges and Claude Ritchey. The closest any of those five ever got to the Hall of Fame was through buying a ticket or working as the night janitor. This is the shortest entry on this list because, honestly, there’s really no need to argue. The argument speaks for itself. And that’s why Phil Rizzuto is the most overrated of all sports legends.
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