Today's RCOTD of Gordie Howe got me thinking: What are the names that even non sports fans have heard about in each sport? Sometimes due to being an all time great, sometimes due to off field noteriety, sometimes due to endorsement relevance, whatever criteria to use but who you would argue every reasonable person should at least know exists.
Here's my thoughts (in no particular order):
Baseball: Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Jose Canseco, Pete Rose (apologies to Ty Cobb, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, others that I think casual fans certainly know but not non fans as much)
Basketball: Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal (apologies to Bill Russell, Jerry West, Charles Barkely, Steph Curry, Dr. J <thanks for calling me out on that one> others)
Football: Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Peyton Manning, OJ Simpson, Jerry Rice, Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka, Dan Marino, John Elway (apologies to Walter Payton, Emmit Smith, Barry Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, others)
Hockey: Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe (apologies to a bunch of great players, hockey just isn't as big to non fans beyond these two names)
Golf: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer (apologies to Phil Mickelson, Payne Stewart, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, others)
Tennis: Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, John McEnroe (apologies to Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova, Chris Everett, Rafael Nadal, Billy Jean King, others)
Soccer: Pele, Ronaldo, David Beckham (apologies to a ton of popular players around the world that we as Americans don't recognize like maybe we ought to)
Your lists? (also I'm a bit bored if you can't tell lol)
