This one's for you, Tim Kurkijan.
How does one define greatness in sports?
When you look back at the careers of Walter Payton, or for you younger guys, Emmit Smith, you think of amazing rushes and piles of touchdowns.
What about Kareem or Wilt? We've seen miles of footage of sky hooks and dunks. And how about the Great One? We might never see 894 goals again, unless they keep tampering with the rules.
And then there's 762.
Whether or not you choose to acknowledge it, Barry Bonds is the home run king. There were plenty of guys who did not want to accept the fact that Ruth's two biggest numbers—61 and 714—were no longer the apex of baseball's power statistic, but they eventually got over it.
If Bonds's records can withstand the likes of A-Rod and Pujols, then it will certainly have its place among the greatest records of all time.
But this post isn't about those numbers.
This is dedicated to the numbers we as sports fans hold in too high esteem, numbers that when you think about them and their relevance to today's sports culture, you're left shaking your head in perplexity.
So let's look at some numbers in the four major professional sports—the NBA, the NHL, the NFL and baseball—that should be put in a large capsule and buried under ground until the apocalypse.
Most Points in a NFL Career (2,544) by Morten Andersen
This is a record that is obviously only held by kickers. And depending on what circle you're in, kickers may not even be considered football players.
Sure the very name of the sport has biological ties to the lowliest position on the field, but that's only because "passball," "rushball," and "tackleball" don't roll off the tongue as well.
Kickers have made huge contributions to some of the greatest highlights in NFL history. But would we miss out if teams had to go for two-point conversions instead? Besides, if you counted touchdown passes, the record would belong to Brett Luscious Favre—hi David ;)—with 2,784.
Highest Career Rating (96.8) by a NFL Quarterback by Steve Young
I teach all grade levels of high school mathematics, and I still can't tell you how they come up with this stat. The funny thing about statistics is if you tickle the numbers enough, you can come up with a number that supports whatever conjecture you have.
That being said, how can you value this record when you can't tell how it's achieved?
Highest Scoring Average (50.4) in a NBA Season by Wilt Chamberlein
No discredit to one of the top three centers of all time, but what?
In 1961-1962, Wilt Chamberlein obviously had one of the greatest seasons in sports history. It was in this season he also scored an untouchable record of 100 points in a game.
But herein lies the problem: Wilt was the largest human on the face of the earth at the time, standing seven feet tall and weighing 275 pounds. At that time, basketball had not seen anything like that.
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