Why do people care about Superbowl?

[Egbert]

Umh, Albie, skill and teamwork and so forth come into sports. Not just athletic ability.

[Al B. Sure!]

Umh, Albie, skill and teamwork and so forth come into sports. Not just athletic ability.

Well of course! But considering that the average NFL player has been working on his skills for at least a decade and usually more and I assume other sports have similar lengths of years spent playing before reaching the professional level, I'm assuming things like skill and teamwork are about the same across all sports.

Athletic ability is variable.

[Asher]

What the hell is 'athletics'? Track and field?

And I am positive that professional American football players are physically superior to the athletes in every other sport.

Goddamn you're ignorant, Alby.

[Asher]

Out of interest, here are some scientific numbers for one aspect of athletics (V02 Max).

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm

Not perfect as the age ranges don't align, but whatever.

Ice Hockey (age 10-30): 50-63
Soccer (age 22-28): 54-64
American Football (age 20-36): 42-60
Track & Field Running (age 18-39): 60-85
Baseball (age 18-32): 48-56
Basketball (age 18-30): 40-60

Looks like American Football is on the lower end of the spectrum, as most people who have half a brain would guess.

Football & Basketball are both the lowest on the VO2 Max scale of the major sports.

[Al B. Sure!]

And yet no one has refuted anything I have asserted!

My hypothesis is if we were to measure the athletic ability of athletes across multiple sports using a composite measure representing as best as possible the primary athletic domains, 'skill position' football players (defined as WR's, RB's, TE's, DB's, and LB's) would score higher than the athletes of other popular sports.

These domains would include cardiovascular endurance, muscular stamina, strength, power, flexibility, speed, agility, balance, and coordination. Some measurements would include

Running Speed/Endurance:
100m, 800m, and 10K for short, mid-distance, and long-distance

Endurance:
VO2Max using one of these devices:



Limit Strength:
1RM of major lifts such as back squat, deadlift, and bench press

Muscular stamina:
Number of reps at either a fixed weight or bodyweight for the major lifts and/or military-style pushup/pullup endurance test

Power:
Vertical jump
Broad jump
Shot put

Agility:
NFL combine-style cone or tire drill


Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this has been done before and only the NFL appears to have a combine which attempts to measure a few of these areas which makes comparison between sports difficult. All I know are what the NFL measures at the combine and NFL players have numbers that would be respectable at the collegiate level for things like Track and Field or Powerlifting.

Judging by that and the paucity of comparable data for other sports, I expect football players to perform far better at my hypothetical test than the athletes in any other sport.

Give me a reason to expect otherwise.

[Asher]

Goddamn you're ignorant, Alby.

VO2 Max is part of the NHL combine as well. I've posted the statistics comparing the various major sports, and American Football is one of the lowest in VO2 Max scoring of the major sports. This should shock no one.

Not only have people refuted your assertions, they've embarrassed you without even trying.

[Al B. Sure!]

Out of interest, here are some scientific numbers for one aspect of athletics (V02 Max).

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm

Not perfect as the age ranges don't align, but whatever.

Ice Hockey (age 10-30): 50-63
Soccer (age 22-28): 54-64
American Football (age 20-36): 42-60
Track & Field Running (age 18-39): 60-85
Baseball (age 18-32): 48-56
Basketball (age 18-30): 40-60

Looks like American Football is on the lower end of the spectrum, as most people who have half a brain would guess.

Football & Basketball are both the lowest on the VO2 Max scale of the major sports.

VO2 Max only represents cardiovascular endurance. Like I said, I want a composite that considers all athletic domains.

Cyclists have the highest VO2 Max of anyone. Does that mean cyclists are the best of the best?

[Al B. Sure!]

Goddamn you're ignorant, Alby.

VO2 Max is part of the NHL combine as well. I've posted the statistics comparing the various major sports, and American Football is one of the lowest in VO2 Max scoring of the major sports. This should shock no one.

Not only have people refuted your assertions, they've embarrassed you without even trying.

IT ONLY REPRESENTS CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE YOU *******!


I EVEN CONCEDED EARLIER THAT NFL PLAYERS WOULD STRUGGLE AT ENDURANCE.

NOW WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER ATHLETIC DOMAINS?!

[Asher]

I'm pretty sure NHL players have more agility than NFL players. The coordination required for an average NHL player is far in excess of your average football player, and it needs to be done at a much faster speed as well.

The only thing I think football players would be stronger than hockey players in is for the linebackers' leg strength. Because there's actual MOVEMENT in hockey, it is NOT good to be a fat **** with tons of muscle as well like many NFL players. Jarome Iginla struggled one season where he put on too much muscle weight, which slowed him down. He lost ~20lbs in muscle, mostly from the legs, and did far better the next year. Hockey players are in TERRIFIC shape but without being bodybuilders, which is dead weight most of the time in hockey. So you cannot simply compare who can bench more.

Your hypothetical test is hypothetically retarded.

[Al B. Sure!]

my hypothetical test would determine which sport has the best athletes in an objective and measurable sense. It is not retarded. Speed, endurance, strength, etc. These things are all easily measurable.

[Asher]

my hypothetical test would determine which sport has the best athletes in an objective and measurable sense. It is not retarded. Speed, endurance, strength, etc. These things are all easily measurable.

But it's retarded, because how do you balance them?

Someone who can bench 1000lbs is not going to be as fast as someone who can bench 300lbs... It's stupid because now you have to weight each category. And how do you determine how to do that?

And why would agility be a ****ing football drill? Jesus christ, Alby.

I think agility tests should be done on skates. Requires ****load more agility than just running around on a field.

[Al B. Sure!]

Ideally, the key to determine which sport has the best all-around athletes would be to have athletes play every other sport. Have soccer players play hockey, have basketball players play football, etc. Unfortunately, to perform at a high level at any of these sports requires a great deal of technical mastery learned over many years of playing (skill). An athlete from sport A may have all the physical tools requires to play sport B whereas the athlete from sport B lacks the physical tools to play sport A but both may struggle equally because of the shared lack of skill in the other sport.

To adjust for the skill requirements, you would need to measure physical ability alone. Like I said, doing so is pretty straight-forward. I gave examples of tests representing the various athletic domains that can be done which would provide concrete numbers for comparison between the athletes in various sports.

However, I concede that these tests may not be perfect. For example, Lance Armstrong has been measured to have one of the highest VO2 Max values ever recorded. He has a resting heart rate in the 30's bpm and a max heart rate of 200+ bpm. Physically, he is the superior cardiovascular endurance specimen. When he ran the NYC marathon, though, he finished 856th! 856th! Perfect cardiovascular conditioning but the medium of running was too different from cycling or any test you can do to predict just how average of a marathoner Armstrong is.

Likewise, while a measure like squat strength has analogies in various sports and is correlated with the ability to perform certain activities, the act of squating a barbell is never perfectly replicated in any sport. Same can be said of most measures I have given.

Nevertheless, just as militaries, police, and sports league utilize physical fitness measures because they give a rough indication of the physical abilities of an individual, my hypothetical test would still be a useful gauge for comparison.

[Asher]

Ideally, the key to determine which sport has the best all-around athletes would be to have athletes play every other sport.

Hockey players would undoubtedly win this competition.

Hockey players can play American football, basketball, and soccer with ease. The other three would NOT be able to play hockey...

[Al B. Sure!]

I think agility tests should be done on skates. Requires ****load more agility than just running around on a field.

Skating requires technical skill. We aren't born with the ability to skate, as we are born with the ability to run and change direction on the ground. The point of my test is to not include sport-specific skills.

[Elok]

Hockey players would undoubtedly win this competition.

Hockey players can play American football, basketball, and soccer with ease. The other three would NOT be able to play hockey...

They'd also have a very hard time playing roller derby. Or UFC/MMA.