Why not? You are aware, are you not, that there are millions of American sports fans who are probably saying that English soccer teams don't belong in a serious poll.
That was a pretty awesome team. Tommy Frazier and Ahman Green running the option was pretty entertaining to watch.
we went ahead and decided to get routed by that team 1 year earlier in lubbock. lawrence phillips had a huge game, as did frazier (obviously). that rushing attack was filthy.
Those were the days *whistles ruefully* I'm 25 and yet watching games from that era makes me feel old. Probably because I saw a lot of them in person.
That was an era in which I cared a lot more about college football than I do now. I did go to a game at Nebraska one time -- saw Eric Crouch score 4 TDs through Too bad those option players just don't translate to the NFL (though I guess Scott Frost was a decent DB).
I'd say Arsenal has the greatest achievement so I voted for them. In footy it's easy to concede the odd freak goal, or get a bad ref decision and lose where you should have drawn so to overcome that statistical likelihood is quite the achievement. If that dolphins team had played a difficult schedule then I would have voted for them b/c without the option for a draw I think that would be more of an achievement. Also, the Arsenal team had an udefeated prem season but lost two (iirc) games to prem teams in other competitions. As far as domination goes, I'd have to say UCLA gets it. They had two consecutive PERFECT seasons and almost every win was not even close. I wasn't even alive, but it had to be a very boring time for college basketball fans. I'm not even going to mention Women's basketball. Sure, Uconn's run is impressive but the number of really talented women basketball players is/was so small and the resources available to smaller schools so much lower that domination by a few teams is expected. Side note: ESPN has an extreme New England bias and I'm shocked that the Patriots team is not listed but like that Dolphins team they had a weak schedule--they only played 3 games against teams with winning records.
In a poll of undefeated teams? Why should they separate it by gender any more than they should separate it by sport? Isn't it just as hard to compare this accomplishment between sports as it is between genders?
hmm, arsenal doing an un-beaten season in the top football league in the world or a womans basketball team of which the standard probably isn't as competitive....hmmmm
Hmm, an Arsenal team which has almost 1/3 of its games end in ties or a woman's team that wins every game. Across multiple seasons with different rosters. And in two tourneys in which you absolutely have to win every game. That's a form of pressure Arsenal never faced... You ever watched UConn play?
all i need to know about women's hoops.. i schooled the player of the year in college basketball. take that for what its worth.
OK, you're a guy who is stronger and more athletic than a woman. I am a relatively weak, and now fat, guy, and I am stronger and more athletic than most women. The poll wasn't who is most athletic, but rather which team, given its competition, had a greater achievement.
oh i know, im just saying if i can dominate the best player in women's ball (who won mvp's in the wnba/etc), there is something categorically different between a woman's achievement and men's.
If you'd indulge me.... OK, so the women are less capable physically then men. You may not be interested in watching them play, and that's OK. I only watch three women's sports myself (soccer, tennis and Olympic volleyball) and I consider myself a fan of women's sports. But if all the women are less capable, it's a level playing as it were, why is their achievement less? Since no woman is going to be able to pull off any Michael Jordan heroics and save his team's ass, maybe their team accomplishments mean more? I'd really be interested in your thoughts, you know, more than just a sentence or two.
By this logic, the accomplishments of your girls youth team would be equivalent to those of an Olympian. After all, it's a level playing field isn't it? Just with a few more factors other than gender.
Accomplishment, maybe. I see where you are coming from, but of course an Olympian is at the pinnacle of the world, and my girls were not. My high school team, from a small and shrinking parochial school, worked as hard as they could (though they did grumble about the two-a-days I instituted this summer), came to our few Saturday practices, and played their hearts out. And I know that they'll remember their championship for as long as any member of the Invincibles will remember their season. I just wonder why greatness is only reserved for men. The two greatest athletic achievements I've ever seen were by two women: Kerri Strug at the Atlanta Olympics and a Downs Syndrome friend of mine with a club foot who ran a 5:30 mile.
One of the best athletics achievements you have seen is someone doing the vault with a sprained ankle? Seriously? Dude, you are really biased.
Don't get me wrong, I voted for Arsenal too. But your point was that the women's team shouldn't even be included in the poll. I think the achievement of the team, bearing in mind the competitive level, means that they should be mentioned.
You ever done the vault? It's scary. And to have to do it limping (she thought at the time that her foot was broken) and for the gold.... Yeah, that for me is greatness. I guess someone could make the case that Derek Jeter getting his 3000th hit with a HR while in the midst of a 5 for 5 day is greatness. I don't.
What a load of bollocks. College basketball has been destroyed by allowing the most talented undergraduates to leave. That wasn't true when UCLA was dominant. Although it seems like college b-ball is more "competitive", it's only because the cream is skimmed off every year instead of staying and playing for four. Conversely you can see the lack of fundamentals development in the pros and the internationals because of the players rushing out of school. I'm an ACC guy all the way, but what Wooden and those teams accomplished was epic. Arsenal's undefeated season in the PL is the greatest and most difficult of the lot though.
No I haven't, but she does the vault, so while it may be scary for you or me, it isn't for her...and while she may have thought that she had broken her foot, she didn't. It was just sprained. It was a great moment for this country and a great moment for her. It definitely was emotional, but the feat itself hardly goes down as one of the two most athletic achievements of all time. Lots of people have done things while in pain. Athletic greatness/achievement to me is Usain Bolt breaking both the 100m and 200m world records at the Olympics in the same year..or Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals in one tourney..or Anthony Robles winning the NCAA wrestling tournament with one leg. Maybe it's just me though.
It's not just you. Most would define greatness the same way. And you give great examples. For me, greatness is how far above the bar you get, how much you surpass the norm. And Phelps is a beast, as are Bolt and Robles and entire hosts of examples. All those count. My comment originally came as several posters intimated that because women are not as physically strong/proficient/athletic as men, their achievements could not even be compared to those of men. BTW, Strug was frightened. I looked around for the quote, I think it was in Sporting News (if you remember that publication), so I can't prove it. I just personally find the vault to be the most intimidating of competitions. I've boxed, high dived, and sky dived, but the vault was the scariest of them all. And I did that at a much younger, supposedly fearless, age than the others.