Who is Iowa's Athlete of the Decade?

[06Panther]

Define dominate. He won ONE super bowl. He has super-inflated stats because he played on teams that passed 50 times a game. Is Kurt a great QB? Yes. Is he a greater athlete than Cael? Not even close.

Super inflated stats? Your arguement doesn't even make sense. You are simply discounting everything he has done for ridiculous reasons.

[maui6651]

Define dominate. He won ONE super bowl. He has super-inflated stats because he played on teams that passed 50 times a game. Is Kurt a great QB? Yes. Is he a greater athlete than Cael? Not even close.

Quit saying "not even close" and I'll stop disagreeing with you. I think they've both accomplished great things. Regardless of winning ONE super bowl, he holds a number of personal records: Kurt Warner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does that count for anything?

[06Panther]

I'm saying that I can't believe you honestly think that Cael Sanderson's accomplishments are somehow diminished because fewer people watch his sport. Whether more people LIKE Football or not is a completely irrelevant argument.

The argument is which GUY is the GREATER ATHLETE.

Cael is the greatest wrestler of all time. The only one to ever go undefeated and win four NCAA Championships. He topped it off with a Gold Medal. He has literally accomplished everything you can possibly accomplish in his sport. He is unparalleled in terms of success in wrestling. He is Iowa's greatest athlete of the decade.

I'm not diminishing his accomplishments. What he did was awesome, and probably won't be done again. But it is silly to say that the stage of the sport doesn't matter.

As someone mentioned, if Iowa had a bowler that hadn't lost, would you vote him ahead of Warner too?

[sodakjoe]

Quit saying "not even close" and I'll stop disagreeing with you. I think they've both accomplished great things. Regardless of winning ONE super bowl, he holds a number of personal records: Kurt Warner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does that count for anything?

It does. But it's still not close. You're talking about a guy who is one of the best at his position in his sport. That's great. I think Warner has had an amazing career and deserves to go to the Hall of Fame.

But when you compare all of that to the unequivocally greatest wrestler EVER, no, it's not close.

[1100011CS]

Super inflated stats? Your arguement doesn't even make sense. You are simply discounting everything he has done for ridiculous reasons.

And you are arguing about this simply because Warner played at UNI. His "arguement" is very reasonable.

[sodakjoe]

I'm not diminishing his accomplishments. What he did was awesome, and probably won't be done again. But it is silly to say that the stage of the sport doesn't matter.

As someone mentioned, if Iowa had a bowler that hadn't lost, would you vote him ahead of Warner too?

Simply by saying bowling is anywhere in the same realm as wrestling, you are diminishing his accomplishments.

[1100011CS]

I'm not diminishing his accomplishments. What he did was awesome, and probably won't be done again. But it is silly to say that the stage of the sport doesn't matter.

As someone mentioned, if Iowa had a bowler that hadn't lost, would you vote him ahead of Warner too?

Maybe, but not sure a bowler counts as an athlete.

[MelMel]

As much as people would like you to believe otherwise, wrestling is an individual sport. You can't directly affect the outcome of the team score outside of what you do yourself. Considering he won four national titles, I'd say he was pulling well more than his share of the team weight.

They do give out awards for the team as well in wrestling right? I would think he had the opportunity to make his team better in practice every day as a team leader? I agree it is more difficult in wrestling, and Cael is still great, but the fact we only finished better than 3rd in the conference once in his career diminishes his legacy slightly in my mind, just like the record for Troy Davis' teams slightly diminishes his career at ISU.

1. Warner
2. Cael
3. Tinsley

[06Panther]

Simply by saying bowling is anywhere in the same realm as wrestling, you are diminishing his accomplishments.

No.

I could say that saying wrestling is in the same realm as the NFL, is diminishing Cael's accomplishments. It works both ways. You just happen to like wresling more than bowling.

By saying what you just said, you are arguing that what Cael did is better than an undefeated bowler, because of the popularity/stage of the sport. And that is exactly what I am trying to do with football. You are doing the same thing that you accused me of.

See what I mean?

[06Panther]

And you are arguing about this simply because Warner played at UNI.

no. I am not.

[sodakjoe]

Maybe, but not sure a bowler counts as an athlete.

And you know what? If you were talking about a guy who won every match and tournament he ever entered, against every guy who competed against him, and was considered to be the best at his sport for the history of that sport, I would vote for a bowler, a table tennis player, an olympic badminton player, luger, bobsledder, curler, alpine skiier, whatever.

Cael was the single most dominant athlete in the history of his sport.

[sodakjoe]

No.

I could say that saying wrestling is in the same realm as the NFL, is diminishing Cael's accomplishments. It works both ways. You just happen to like wresling more than bowling.

By saying what you just said, you are arguing that what Cael did is better than and undefeated bowler, because of the popularity/stage of the sport. And that is exactly what I am trying to do with football. You are doing the same thing that you accused me of.

See what I mean?

No...you're arguing that a guy who led a team to one championship is greater than a guy who NEVER lost.

[1100011CS]

No.

I could say that saying wrestling is in the same realm as the NFL, is diminishing Cael's accomplishments. It works both ways. You just happen to like wresling more than bowling.

By saying what you just said, you are arguing that what Cael did is better than and undefeated bowler, because of the popularity/stage of the sport. And that is exactly what I am trying to do with football. You are doing the same thing that you accused me of.

See what I mean?

Until you put up an undefeated bowler it's a moot point. Oh, was Kurt undefeated?

[sodakjoe]

They do give out awards for the team as well in wrestling right? I would think he had the opportunity to make his team better in practice every day as a team leader? I agree it is more difficult in wrestling, and Cael is still great, but the fact we only finished better than 3rd in the conference once in his career diminishes his legacy slightly in my mind, just like the record for Troy Davis' teams slightly diminishes his career at ISU.

1. Warner
2. Cael
3. Tinsley

Wrestling is a team sport in the same sense that Tennis or Golf is a team sport. Baseball is a TEAM sport, like football or basketball. Wrestling and tennis are individual sports that happen to also give out team awards. I would differentiate between the two because the focus is individual, as opposed to on the team.

[Marc936]

i put dallas clark, simply because clark has sent me to the finals in fantasy football because of his effort, whereas kurt warner (5th round pick), did so horrible the first half i had to bench him over brett favre, and the time i do decide to put warner back in (vs the 49ers), he screws me >.<