ESPN's survey on toughest sport, most inaccurate report ever?

[gusmahler]

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To me the most overrated ones on that criteria were baseball, football and tennis. Endurance in football lol, they stop after every play, and analitical aptitude in football, only person who needs that skill is quaterback.


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They go all out for 5-10 seconds. Stop for 20-30 seconds. Then go all out again. That's incredibly tiring.

As for analytical skills, you obviously don't know much about football. Offensive lineman are constantly analyzing their blocking assignments. Defensive linemen are constantly analyzing the blockers to find out what to do next. Linebackers watch everything from the way the QBs feet are aligned to the direction of the RBs first step to determine where they should go. DBs have to figure out if it is really a play-fake or a hand-off. RBs have to analyze the blocking to find out where the holes will be. The sheer number of plays is mind-numbing.

Football is possibly the most analytical of all soprts.

[gusmahler]

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The biggest flaw in this study is that they assume all of the skills are equal.

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Agreed. Billiards, for example, doesn't require stamina. But most people suck at billiards, so it has to be a lot harder than they say it is.

[jstnrgrs]

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sports that are too high: gymnastics, wrestling, baseball, speed skating, tennis, badminton, surfing, figure skating

sports not high enough: distance swimming, rugby, lacrosse, canoe/kayak, track and field everything, rowing (how is this different than canoe/kayak)

wtf rollerskating is a sport?

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Wrestling is by far the toughest sport I've ever participated in. It belongs ahead of soccer, football, and basketball. (I can't say how it compared to hockey or rugby since I have never played those.)

Since they have it behind football, I suspect that they actually have it to low.

[Dominic]

tennis deserves its place on the list...it's an incredibly difficult sport to reach an above-average ability.

[THAY3R]

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does distance swimmnig actually require "skill"? Endurance sure, but, can't just about anybody swim? I think it should be pretty much last.

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As a former swimmer, i take offense to this post.

Most high school swimmers practice 2 hours before school, and then 90 minutes after each day.

[dknightx]

anyone who thinks wrestling is too high up there, has either never wrestled before, or the only wrestling match they have seen is that lame gold medal match from a few years ago (in the heavy weight class). I have no idea how basketball is more difficult than wrestling .... however i agree that boxing and football should be way up there.

[aheravi]

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They go all out for 5-10 seconds. Stop for 20-30 seconds. Then go all out again. That's incredibly tiring.


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Notwithstanding the fact that players are one-way (offense/defense), that the actual time between plays is closer to 30-40 seconds, TV timeouts, change of possession, etc., there are much harder "endurance" sports. This doesn't address collisions.

This also doesn't address Randy Moss. Pretty sure he doesn't go all out every play.

[dknightx]

And how did wrestling only get a "5" for nerve?

NERVE - The ability to overcome fear. Example: High-board divers, race-car drivers, ski jumpers.

ah now i see, no wrestlers in the "panel of experts".

[Pudge714]

As a Rugby player I am biased, but I think it is the hardest of the team sports. 14 is joke.

[BigSoonerFan]

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Heres a link to it...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...ills?GT1=3256#

I agree with 1st and last, but the rest is incredibly inaccurate, i'm not sure where they find their "experts". Some of the numbers they come up with are so bad i'm in shock.

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This seems like it is more tough, as in physically difficult, than tough as in hard to play.

Also, some of those "skills" are more natural than others.