Favre one of nine athletes up for 'Greatest' honor

Scout.com ^ | May 25, 2005 at 11:22am ET | Bill Huber

[scott says]

[tahotdog]

Ali proclaimed himself "The Greatest," and he very well may be. He was the dominant heavyweight fighter of an era filled with superb heavyweights, despite losing the best years of his career because of his decision to not fight in Vietnam.

Ali was one of the best pure athletes ever to earn his living by boxing. That, however, is not the same thing as being one of the greatest prizefighters. I don't picture him lasting more than seven or eight rounds in the ring with Joe Lewis for instance. The two best prize fighters of the last forty or fifty years are probably Roberto Duran and Roy Jones.

[NormsRevenge]

What a load of patootie for nominees , few are worthy, most are glory hogs and full of themselves, imo.

[skimbell]

Don't be "wediculous"!

[tahotdog]

Other than that if you really want the two people who had the gratest positive effects on American life out of the list you cite, it's probably Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Ford.

[Strategerist]

What a ridiculous show.

Basically, everyone that doesn't vote for George Washington should be shot or deported; ridiculous to even consider anyone else.

[skimbell]

I'm not too sure. How in the hell do you just walk by Ellen Degenerate?

[yarddog]

I almost always hate these top 100/top 10 lists but this one seems particularly bad.

I like Favre just fine but greatest American ever? You've got to be kidding!

Oddly enough, he is a better choice than most of the others.

[Mr. Blonde]

General Patton topped Maxim's list of Greatest Americans a few years ago.

I'm amazed that John D. Rockafeller isn't even a nominee.

[Spktyr]

Ronald Reagan's on the list for Discovery, too. However, the greatest American is anyone who served, fought, and/or died under this flag or her predecessors:

[Doc Savage]

Here, I'll just fall down so you can set the sack record, but I'll make it look good.............ooopps! I didn't make it look good, but so who cares, I Brett farve,........hey pass the meth!

[Burr5]

I love seeing Abraham Lincoln and Rush Limbaugh listed right next to each other.

Washington maybe. But Lincoln is also deserving. What balls and determination they both had. They created this nation, decades removed from each others' efforts.

[crz]

George Washington, Billy Graham.

[Strategerist]

Eh, there's a difference between "coolest" and "greatest"

Almost every other revolutionary movement fails because some hero can't resist being El Supremo for life. Washington just walked away. And set the tone for the entire country.

[Asphalt]

NFL PING
FReepmail me to get on or off

[yarddog]

No sports figure or entertainer should be on the list unless they contributed tremendously in other ways too.

[CaptainMorgantown]

My vote would be for Benjamin Franklin. He was instrumental in building a set of colonies that were mature enough for self-governance (with libraries, schools, colleges, newspapers, industry, fire departments and postal service). The Declaration of Independence might never have been written or passed without his political choreography, which might not have occured if Parliament hadn't so personally humiliated him when he served as a lobbyist the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a few years earlier. The War of Independence would not have been won without his diplomacy on our behalf.

Plus he was America's most famous scientists, most famous inventor, and most famous satirist of the 18th Century. Not bad for a fellow who never served as president. It's all about the Benjamins ...

[Spktyr]

Without these men and women and the blood of so many others, this country would never have been born or survived to the present date. The price of liberty is exorbitantly, astoundingly high, and it is now, as it has always been, the greatest Americans who have stood forth to become soldiers and pay it.