When it comes to the most dominant pitchers in MLB history, two names that often come to mind are Sandy Koufax and Pedro Martinez. With a lethal combination of movement and overpowering stuff, each pitcher was nearly unhittable in his prime, racking up the strikeouts, wins, and Cy Youngs – in fact, their respective five-year peaks are some of the most dominant pitching performances the game of baseball has ever seen. Despite their careers being separated by 40 years, the striking similarities between these legendary Hall of Fame hurlers leads us to ask:
Much like quarterbacks are the field generals and beating hearts of a football team’s offense, middle linebackers are very much the quarterbacks and heart and soul of a defense. From their position in the center of the defensive formation, they are often at the center of the action, whether it be swooping in for a tackle, rushing after the quarterback, or dropping back in coverage. In the 21st century, two of the outstanding linebackers of this generation have been Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens and Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears, who were both centerpieces of dominating defensive teams. Given their overlapping careers and subsequent elections into the Hall of Fame, it is natural to compare the two players and ask:
Throughout the history of sports, there have been many cases of “what could have been”, i.e. immensely talented players who, for one reason or another, did not fully reach their potential. In recent NHL memory, two players who come to mind are Peter Forsberg and Eric Lindros, whose careers were closely linked from the very beginning – though both ended up having excellent careers and were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, had it not been for injuries, each was blessed with the talent to become one of the greatest hockey players in history. Alas, we can only judge players by what they actually did and so there will always be questions of what each player could have accomplished – nevertheless, based on their existing bodies of work, the question is:
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