Sports Today vs Sports of Yesterday talk

[jwyblejr]

With out a doubt, today's football teams would entirely annihilate old teams. They are much bigger, faster and athletic now. You have lineman now that can run as fast as the RB's back then.

Believe me there would be deaths

Yeah for the modern players. They're too injury prone nowadays. It seems as if you even look at them sideways,they go down.

[HardyGirl]

Well, even though I don't like sports, I do have some memories. My dad and brother used to love watching ABC's Wide World Of Sports on Sundays. The were defintely into boxing, Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell. I kinda liked the gymnastics segments, and of course Evel Knievel. I know Monday Night Football was in big deal back in the 70s. Basketball uniforms looked better b/c guys actually wore SHORTS! And baseball cards were a big deal at my school. Kids played a kind of go fish game w/ the cards, which was the only reason I collected them briefly.

[saildog]

With out a doubt, today's football teams would entirely annihilate old teams. They are much bigger, faster and athletic now. You have lineman now that can run as fast as the RB's back then.

Believe me there would be deaths

Yeah, but that is the linemen.......I'm willing to bet you can not name me thirty of them in under three minutes that ever played in the NFL without looking it up. They have always been largely (pun intended) unheralded. You could easily name 5 times as many skill players, though. Not saying linemen are unimportant or ever have been, but all of a sudden they are a case in point, even though throughout NFL history they have only been distinguished by head-to-head skill....not head-to-head size.

How about this: I honestly believe you could hand pick athletes in TEAM sports, from any era except the "Dead Ball" era of baseball, and put them head-to-head against a team made up of athletes that are playing right now and they could hold their own. Now, in football, you would have to handicap the O and D lines (for obvious reasons), but every era of any team sport has had its "freaks" that could have held their own in any situation the sport could throw at them.

Case in point: The 4 fastest men to ever play in the NFL are all older than me. All of them would have lost to Usain Bolt in the 100 meter dash, but Bolt don't play in the NFL. Bob Hayes is a Hall of Famer and won a Super Bowl Ring AND an Olympic Gold Medal. Willie Gault has a Super Bowl Ring and might have won a Gold if the US didn't boycott the 1980 Olympic Games. Deion and Bo (who ran a verifiable 4.12 40-yard dash) could have been Hall of Famers if they hadn't have split their careers between two Professional Sports (does anyone do that now with any level of success? Heck, Bo was an All-Star MVP and a Pro-Bowler....in the same year!) and Darrell Green (a Hall of Famer) beat Carl Lewis in the 100 meters.

Baseball would be even easier to pick. Micky Mantle??? No one has ever been faster from Home to First nor crushed the long ball like him....to this day.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

"And know you know....the rest of the story...

page 2..." lol

[Mikey]

Paul Harvey was great ...

Half of his stories ended ......

... and that ........................... little boy ....................... grew up ......................... to become ......................PRESIDENT ....................... of the United States

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I can't remember this exactly, but Paul Harvey on the radio (in the 90's I think) read a letter that a fan wrote to the commissioner of baseball complaining how today's players were not like his favorites of the past. The fan went on to say how today's players have it so much easier than those of yesterday, etc. Well, it turned out that the fan letter was written in the 1910s or 20s and the players of yesterday, that the fan was pining for, were all folks from the 1800's.

[Dave Mc]

I don't know how things would compare, but I do miss the old days when on the back of a Baseball card you could read "Richie works as a gravedigger in the off season" or "Milt spends his off season working in an Orange Juice factory".

[toys2cool]

With out a doubt, today's football teams would entirely annihilate old teams. They are much bigger, faster and athletic now. You have lineman now that can run as fast as the RB's back then.

Believe me there would be deaths

exactly

[Hector]

Here's a way to look at it:

Take 11, 5, or 9 Modern Day Marines, hand them shields and spears then send them up against 11, 5, or 9 Ancient Spartans. Who's going to win that fight?

Take 11 Ancient Spartans (outfitted as they were and trained only to fight as they did) and send them up against even 2 Marines with modern weapons and equipment.

Apples to Oranges.

Now, take any of them, raise them with the same toughness, train and equip them similarly and send them head-to-head. For the most part they will perform similarly.

Or, how about this?

Go back to the 70s, in almost any neighborhood, and round up a team of 9 average, everyday kids. You could even include some girls because there were quite a few that played scrappy sandlot ball back then.

Now, bring them forward in time to today and round up a team of average, everyday kids in one typical neighborhood. Can't scour the city looking for the ringers who play league ball and go to high-dollar camps. You have to get an average kid.

Who'd win a sandlot or pickup game of anything that didn't include a game console?

Excellent post.

[Zemo]

With out a doubt, today's football teams would entirely annihilate old teams. They are much bigger, faster and athletic now. You have lineman now that can run as fast as the RB's back then.

Believe me there would be deaths

[saildog]

you think if you would've had the internet and or video games the way they are today that you'd be outside playing sports everyday? i doubt it , but I know what you mean

Oh, I got no delusions about what that answer would be.

Different times (with some healthier distractions) that really can't be compared.

[toys2cool]

I'm not talking about kids that participate in organized athletics, just an everyday kid. Back in the day, kids weren't conditioned to think about playing at the next level. They just played and as a result, more of them played. There's a lot more to it than that, I realize, but when I was a kid, we played some kind of pick-up game all the time and most kids could play some kind of sport with some degree of skill. I don't remember very many fat kids back then. There were some, but not like today.

Today it seems like the majority of kids, when they realize they will never be elite, or even play on a winning team, choose not to bother.

you think if you would've had the internet and or video games the way they are today that you'd be outside playing sports everyday? i doubt it , but I know what you mean

[saildog]

I don't know.. kids of today can really ball, I know you have the majority who are gamers and do nothing but play games all day, But I still think they're better today and they will only continue to get better

it's just the way it is, Athletes 20 years from now will better then todays

I'm not talking about kids that participate in organized athletics, just an everyday kid. Back in the day, kids weren't conditioned to think about playing at the next level. They just played and as a result, more of them played. There's a lot more to it than that, I realize, but when I was a kid, we played some kind of pick-up game all the time and most kids could play some kind of sport with some degree of skill. I don't remember very many fat kids back then. There were some, but not like today.

Today it seems like the majority of kids, when they realize they will never be elite, or even play on a winning team, choose not to bother.

[toys2cool]

I don't know.. kids of today can really ball, I know you have the majority who are gamers and do nothing but play games all day, But I still think they're better today and they will only continue to get better

it's just the way it is, Athletes 20 years from now will better then todays

[saildog]

Here's a way to look at it:

Take 11, 5, or 9 Modern Day Marines, hand them shields and spears then send them up against 11, 5, or 9 Ancient Spartans. Who's going to win that fight?

Take 11 Ancient Spartans (outfitted as they were and trained only to fight as they did) and send them up against even 2 Marines with modern weapons and equipment.

Apples to Oranges.

Now, take any of them, raise them with the same toughness, train and equip them similarly and send them head-to-head. For the most part they will perform similarly.

Or, how about this?

Go back to the 70s, in almost any neighborhood, and round up a team of 9 average, everyday kids. You could even include some girls because there were quite a few that played scrappy sandlot ball back then.

Now, bring them forward in time to today and round up a team of average, everyday kids in one typical neighborhood. Can't scour the city looking for the ringers who play league ball and go to high-dollar camps. You have to get an average kid.

Who'd win a sandlot or pickup game of anything that didn't include a game console?