Who is the greatest American male athlete of all time? It is an awfully silly thing to ask on one hand, but an important question on the other. Sports fans cannot get enough of these debates, even if there is no discernible way to win them.
How do you compare team-sport athletes to individuals? Athletes who competed before integration to those who played afterward? Olympic champions to non-Olympians?
A current New England Patriots quarterback to a retired Chicago Bulls 2-guard?
You need to have fun with it. Last spring, after a phone conversation with Tom Brady about his future, I posited Michael Jordan's legacy was Brady's final frontier.