The #3 Athlete of the 2000s: Peyton Manning

What is there to say that hasn't already been said. What is there to discuss that hasn't already been discussed. Transcendence needs no description. It is fully evident in front of our eyes. Pictures are worth 1000 words, and pictures of Manning, stills or videos, all say the same thing: we are all witness to greatness in its purest form, witnesses to perfection. The position of quarterback will never be played as perfectly as Peyton Manning has played it the last ten years, and as the headline star of the headline sport in the country, Manning earns his spot at number three of the decade for being football's number one.

There are very few totally transcendent athletes in the past ten years. There are no athlete's that can literally bring people to tears with their virtuosity, their sheer brilliance. These words are usually reserved for artists, for painters like Michelangelo, sculptors like Botticelli, musicians like Mozart, or even more recently guitarists like Eddie Van Halen. They are people that elicit the same reaction from observers lucky enough to witness their greatness. It is a simple reaction of, "How in God's name did he do that?". Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks, obviously, but there were better quarterbacks in the playoffs (Montana, not Brady), and better, more rugged personifications of the leader of men that quarterbacks are so often portrayed as (Grandpa Favre, for one). However, there has never been a better passer, and in a football world where the pass has beaten the run with a club and put it down forever, there is no greater compliment. Watching Manning throw the ball into tiny windows, hitting receivers thought to be covered square in their chest, has been the football equivalent of watching Eddie Van Halen play eruption, or staring agape at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It is beautiful, it is perfect. It is Peyton.

The numbers have to be mentioned at some point. They just have to because they are insane. Of course, excuses from Manning detractors will be made that he plays in a passing league (true, but so does everyone else, and no one else comes close), and that he has weapons (true from the years 2004-2006, before and after he has at most three good players around him). Even considering every point, his numbers for the 2000s are baffling: 160 games played (1st all time for any decade ever), 115 wins (1st), 65.9 Completion Percentage (2nd to Young, 90s), 42,254 yards (by far the most all time), 314 tds (by far the most all time), and a QB rating of 98.2 (highest for any decade). By any measure, he has put up the greatest statistical decade for any QB ever, and some of those numbers, like yards and TDs, he's not even close. In the decade, he threw for 4,000 yards nine times (three more times than anyone else has in a CAREER), and had eight straight seasons (2002-2009) of a completion percentage of at least 65.0, posting one higher than 66.6 (two completions in three attempts, an extremely high rate) six times. He has gotten a QB rating of over 98.0 in six of the last seven seasons, and the only other one was in 2008 when he played half the year on a left knee missing a bursa sac and inflamed, in which he had a rating of 95.0 and was the league MVP. Speaking of MVPs, he won the award four times in the decade, more than any other player in a career, and was runner up one other time. He's also four times had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 (something about as rare as a perfect game in baseball) four times in the decade, including in the playoffs against Denver. He has been the best QB statistically ever, and really his numbers this decade were mindboggling.

Except to dwell purely on the numbers is leaving the best part of the transformation Manning has undertaken in the decade out. He's no longer just a stat-monster (of course, the stats are still flying in bunches), but he has become the team. The Colts cannot run the ball. At all. They are below average at run defense, and fluctuate between average and good at pass defense. Those are combinations usually reserved for teams that go 8-8. Manning has led the Colts to 12 wins an astonishing seven years in a row, which is, again, more 12 win seasons put up by a QB in an entire career. For comparison, Brady has only had four such seasons in his career. Warner has had two. Favre comes closest with six. Manning is a stat-monster, sure, but he's also a winner above all, alot like fellow top-5 athlete Martin Brodeur. He has transformed himself into the ultimate winner, a guy that will just not let his team that should hover around .500 do anything worse that 12-4 and have a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl.

The year was 2008. Manning started the season without getting a single snap in training camp and had two knee surgeries to remove an infected bursa sac. The Colts themselves were playing without three of their alleged starting o-lineman, including Jeff Saturday, their star center, and had in their places, a two rookies and a second year sixth round pick. They were playing against the Minnesota Vikings, a team with arguably the best defensive line. Manning was a sitting duck, getting hammered time and time again as his o-line was too battered to keep the Viking's Williams Wall from applying major pressure, and he was too injured to escape their grasp. The Colts were doing nothing on offense because of the patchwork line, down 15-0 in Minnesota in the 3rd Quarter. Manning knew the team could not go down 0-2 on the season, he knew that it was his time to pull a Montana and literally bring the team back from the dead. He did just that, throwing for 200 second half yards, and somehow leading the Colts to a 18-15 win. These types of wins have become commonplace ever since the league decided to all stop blitzing him after his 49 td 121.1 passer rating blitzkrieg in 2004. The league adapted to Manning's brilliance starting in 2005, and Manning brilliance outworked them again. He started to stop putting up 4 tds a game, he started just killing teams instead by outgunning them mentally. Every coach was outworked by a player at the peak of his powers. This Minnesota game would be repeated so many times.



There was the Jets game in 2006 when the Jets had five different leads, but lost when Manning put up two TDs in the last 5 minutes. There was the Broncos game in 2006, when Manning, against a defense that had allowed just two TDs in the first 5 games, put up 28 in the second half to beat the Broncos in Mile High 34-31. There was the 2007 game against Tennessee, when he put up 321 yards against what would become the league's best pass defense to win 22-20 in Nashville. There was the game when he beat the Jaguars, winner of four straight, in 2007 by throwing to Wayne, Clark and Aaron Moorehead and Ben Utecht. There was the 2008 game in Heinz against the best defense to grace a football field since the legendary 2002 Bucs, where Manning put up 240 yards and three tds to beat the eventual champs in their building 24-20. There was the game two weeks later when he led a game winning field goal drive in 30 seconds to beat the Chargers in San Diego (yes, he can beat the Chargers). There was the game in 2008 where he was 29-34 to lead a comeback in Jacksonville in 2008, when the Colts were down 14-, to win 31-24 to clinch a playoff spot and a 3rd MVP. There was the game in 2009 where he held the ball for 14 minutes total and led the Colts to 27 points with 302 yards on just 14 completions to beat Miami in Miami. There was the game against New England where he scalped the Pats to the tune of twenty-one fourth quarter points to erase a 31-14 deficit. There was the game two weeks later when he led another 17 point comeback in Houston. Then he essentially mirrored his 2008 performance with a 23-30, 308 yard 4 td fourth quarter comeback against Jacksonville to lock up another MVP and home-field advantage.

Of course, even before his talent level around him finally caught up, he was busy doing the same thing to less fanfare. There was the 2000 game against the Patriots where he put up a perfect passer rating, bringing the Colts back from down 16-7 in the third quarter against Belichick, winning 30-23. There was the game in 2001 where he outdueled Trent Green in his KC prime in Arrowhead, putting up 28 second half points to win 35-28. There was the game in 2002 where he put up 150 second half yards in a blizzard in Mile High to lead a come-from-behind win 23-20. Then, of course, there was the amazing comeback from down 35-14 with five minutes to go against the defending Super Bowl champions and best defense in the league Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa. And finally, there was the game in 2003 where he led the Colts back from down 31-10 in the third quarter against the Patriots and came up one yard short of winning 41-38. Of course, there was the flawless, mistake-free promise to win the division later that year in Tennessee against a great Titans team. Then, in 2004, when his defense failed him most and allowed 45 points, he put up 472 yards and 5 tds against Kansas City, or when he had a run of 5-4-5-4-6 tds in five straight games. Peyton has been the master in close games, in tight games, in blowouts, in comebacks and in slugfests. He is the master, period.

There have long been doubts and jeers pointed towards Peyton because of his "playoff failures". These did have some merit to them pre-2003, when he lost all his three playoff games. But since, they are ridiculous, and are purely the last grasp that some deranged Brady-fan clings to when falling of Mt. Manning. Since 2003, when he finally had a team with enough talent that an average QB like Jake Plummer could have led them to 10 wins (while Manning led them to 12+), Manning has gone 9-6 in the playoffs, with only Brady winning more playoff games. Manning has, in the last seven years, won a playoff game four times (03, 04, 06, 09), reached three AFC Championship Games, two Super Bowls and won a title. In each of his last four playoff losses, against the Steelers in '05, Chargers in '07 and '08 and the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV, Manning has put up over 290 yards, with the last three each eclipsing the 310 mark. He threw for 402 yards in a loss, where both of his interceptions first touched Colts receivers and bounced off, and a game in which his team was ludicrously banged up (and even a QB like Philip Rivers would have led to about a 7-9 record) and lost in overtime he threw for 310. Then, he threw for 333, the third most ever for a Super Bowl loser. These playoff losses cannot be blamed on Manning. In 2008, and 2009, the Colts don't even sniff the playoffs or the Super Bowl, respectively, without Manning and with a QB like Rivers or Brady. Manning himself won three extra games for those teams. Manning was those teams.

The playoffs are where legends are made, and truthfully, the Manning legend as an all-time great can be built from the playoffs using just two games, the two games that define Manning more than any other, and his two greatest performances to boot. They were both in the highest of pressure situations, and both included comebacks against top defenses. They were the identical cases of the 2006 and 2009 AFC Championship Games. First, the '09 version. Down 11 points to the Jets with 2 minutes to go against the best defense in the league, as well as the best pass defense since the ludicrously good 2002 Bucs unit, Manning displayed probably his best quality game. He unleashed hell on the league's best defense, torching a team that up to that point allowed a paltry 166 yards passing, Manning threw for 377. Against a team that on average allowed 14 points, Manning put up 30, 24 coming in the games last 32 minutes. Against a team that normally allowed 260 total yards, Manning and the Colts put up 460. It was brilliance, it was beautiful, it was total Manning. Never once did he lose his cool, never once did he force anything, never once did he panic. The opportunity was there. The Colts were playing badly at home in a playoff game. Unlike his rival Brady, who two weeks had a similar situation against Baltimore and decided to throw up one of the worst performances in QB playoff history, Manning maned up and decided to stop messing around and just owned Rex Ryan and the Jets.

For More on the 2009 Title Game, check out the earlier post: "The Beatification of Manning" (http://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2010/01/beatification.html)

However, nothing is more Manning than his epic 2006 AFC Championship Game win against the Patriots. Down 21-3 to his biggest rival, backed up to his own 12 with just 2 minutes remaining in the half, Manning put up 35 points on the best defensive mastermind of his generation, ruthlessly tearing through the Patriots flaccid defense to the tune of 349 yards, with 186 of them coming in half number two, which he entered down 21-6. It was the biggest comeback in Title Game history, and it was against the most resourceful defense in the NFL, playing with the pride of a Dynasty to defend. Manning, against the team that had caused him so much heartbreak and agony, and had trounced him time and time again, laid out the heavy machinery and broke Belichick and killed the Pats dynasty. It was the greatest game of Manning's life, and it was a defining one too. Here was a man discounted and blitzed early in his career and in the game, down 21-3. Manning made his comeback, went on to capture the ring and stake his claim on top of the NFL world.

Manning's legacy is not done, nor is it complete. He will have many more years to win another ring and forever silence his critics. He will eventually pass Favre to claim hold of all the major passing categories for a career. He will most likely eventually take his place on top of the Mt. Olympus of QBs, joining or knocking off Joe Montana. However, that is for the future. This is about the past 10 years, and those alone have been something to behold; a decade of dominance and influence. It is Manning's brilliance that made the no-huddle popular. It is Manning's brilliance that has influenced a whole pack of young QBs who wing it around like him, call plays and audible like him, and who throw for 4,000 yards like him. It was his singular brilliance on that Sunday Night in the old RCA Dome that killed the hated Patriots Dynasty. It is his personality and charisma that has allowed himself to transcend the caging helmet of a football player/mercenary and become the leading ambassador for the NFL. Jim L. Mora once said of Manning, "we played greatness today." No, Jim, you are wrong. You, and the rest of the NFL, played greatness for ten straight years.

Top 10 of the 2000s: Coaches

They are the nice suited (well, in the NHL and NBA at least) men. Domineering yet enchanting, boring yet mesmerizing. They are the men whose lives are pure death, with hours and hours of work, for payoff far less than their players who supposedly it is their job to "boss". The 2000s saw its fair share of great coaches. Here are the Top-10 (excluding college guys, as their job mostly consits of recruiting and paying players), starting with the 5 who just missed the cut:

15.) Mike D'Antoni

He was the guy that along with his trusted sidekick Nash brought the NBA back from the dead. His system made guys like Jim Jackson, Raja Bell, Quentin Richardson and Boris Diaw into good players, and made Nash a two-time MVP. Sadly, his failure to win a title, and his horror show in New York put him down here.

14.) Bill Cowher

The chin would probably be higher if he was a coach for more than just the first seven years of the decade, years that included three times not making the playoffs. He did, however, lead three spectacular regualar seasons, but twice lost at home in the conference title game. His one troph redeemed the decade for him, etched his name into the walls of Canton and also made it known that coaches that don't work 100 hour weeks can win.

13.) Ozzie Guillen

The funniest guy on the list. If this was a list of "Coaches I would most like to have a beer with", he comes first (just ahead of Mike Tomlin, with Gregg Popovich (the bearded era Pops), Mike McCarthy (looks like he could throw many down) and Stan Van (just for the comedy) rounding out the top-5. Belichick would be in there, for bar-brawl purposes). Sadly, his team has only once made the playoffs outside of the 2005 World Series win. But, when you win a title in a city that had gone 187 years without one, you get on the list.

12.) Charlie Manuel

Seems to be a fun jovial guy. Plus, he's huge in Japan. Steered the Phillies nicely, but I would have to say was a gib dissapointment until 2007, as he had many talented enough Philly teams that couldn't even get past the Marlins of the world.

11.) Mike Scoscia

He did win a title this decade, and has made many trips to the playoffs, but they have only made it past the first round three times. When he marsterfully guided the 2002 team to the World Series title, he was hailed as a saviour, a brilliant mind leading a small-market team. Sadly, the Angels are not a small-market team any longer, which makes his lack of total playoff success a legitimate knock the past 5 years. They might not have the Yankees/Cubs/Mets type wealth, but they have brought in stars. Scoscia has been good, but not good enough.


And Now, The Top-10 Coaches of the 2000s:


10.) Dick LeBeau



I felt that it would be nice to start with an assistant coach. What is more ironic is that he was a HORRIBLE head coach in his three years this decade (2000-2002) when he coached the Bengals. All is forgiven in my book, though, with his years in Pittsburgh. He joined Bill Cowher's staff in 2004, and for the next five years, his team had the league's top ranked defense three times, finishing second another year. He was the best coordinator in the league. The Steeler's defense went through all kinds of overhaul. In his first year, the guys by the name of Clark Haggans, Larry Foote and Joey Porter, as well as DeShea Townsend and Bryan Flowers were all major cogs in the Steeler machine. All of them are gone, replaced on the fly without drop off. LeBeau will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player this August, but I am almost 100% sure that if not for his success in Pittsburgh Part II, he doesn't get there.

His ability to scheme his zone blitzes is amazing. He is the man singularily responsible for the zone blitz being run by nearly every team in the NFL. He is the man that made blitzburgh a reality, showing that being smart can beat being strong. In his six year run that saw the Steelers win two titles, the team went 65-31 (8-2 in the playoffs). In the five years in Pittsburgh that surrounded those, the team went 38-25-1 (2-2 in the playoffs) without him. Cowher left, replaced by a green Tomlin. Porter left, replaced by a street player named James Harrison. Kimo von Olhoffen left, replaced by a guy named Brett Keisel. Tommy Maddox left, replaced by Ben Roethlisberger, and the Steelers kept humming. Why? LeBeau. He's the real brains behind the Steelers dominance in the 2000s.


9.) Ron Gardenhire



He's won a total of one playoff series since 2002. He's won just two playoff games since 2003. So, why is he on this list? He's been as succesful as any team not named New York, Boston, Philadelphia or St. Louis, and he's done it with a small-payroll year after year. Brad Radke? Brian Duensing? Carlos Silva? Kyle Losche? Lew Ford? Corey Koskie? Shannon Stewart? Nick Punto? Those are the names of guys that started playoff games for the Twins under Gardenhire's managerial run. Other than Santana, Hunter, Mauer and Morneau, Gardenhire has never been given a great every-day player or starting pitching. The Twins cut corners at every opportunity they can. The Twins are cheap. They are finally opening their pocketbooks now, but if they did back in 2002 when they hired Gardenhire, he would have won mutliple titles.

There were Yankees who didn't like Torre. There have been Red Sox critical of Francona. I have never heard of a single twin who did not love Ron Gardenhire. Teaching the fundamentals of OBP, throwing strikes and playing defense, the Twins have been to the playoffs five teams, and lost a play-in game in 2008. It is hard to statistically defend this selection, but anectodally, it is easy.

In 2002, with the MLB all-but assured of a strike (one that never came) Bud Selig brought up the dreaded "C"-word, 'contraction'. The two teams in question were the Expos, a team deserving of contraction, and the Twins. Seriously, during a year where the team was rumored to be on the contraction block (a much scarier block than the trading block) Gardenhire piloted the team to the ALCS. With a frugal owner, despite being worth billions himself, Gardenhire has taken the players given to him and always molded a competitive unit. This year might just be his year, with the team moving to outdoor Target Field, and finally opening up a fat, fat wallet that Carl Pohlad has been hiding. Gardenhire might finally get the ultimate success, but he earned it years ago.


8.) Andy Reid



He may be the butt of jokes due to his large butt (as well as his large body mass). He might be criticized alot for wasting timeouts and being terrible at calling two-minute drills. Those are both legitimate claims against him. However, we should not gloss over the fact that between the layers of fat, lies a great coaching mind, talent evaluator, game planner and big heart. It is never easy to coach in Philadelphia, a city that demands excellence at all times. Even though his regime has easily been the best in Eagles history at consisitently putting a winning product out on the field, Reid has been hammered by the Philadelphia media and fandom alike. It is not fair to a good man and a good coach.

Andy Reid inherited slop, left over by the Ray Rhodes era. He took one year to clean house, and then, starting in 2000, he went to work, making the Eagles the best NFC Team of the decade, and the most consistently good year-in-year out team not quarterbacked by first-ballot hall of famers. He didn't have a Brady or a Manning. He had a good QB one level below. He did not have a Marvin Harrison or a Randy Moss. The one year he had one of those players, his team made the Super Bowl. Other than in 2004, he has had McNabb throw to guys named Pinkston, Trash, L.J, Staley, Westbrook, Curtis and Baskett. It was the passing form of the Denver running game, just plug in a WR, and McNabb will find him. If not McNabb, then Feeley or Detmer, as shown in 2002, when he lost McNabb for 4 games and went 3-1 with those two world-beaters. One year, his receivers were so bad that none of them caught a TD until Week 9, and his team started 0-2 losing their first two games, both at home, by a combined score of 48-10. What happened? His team went 12-4, and hosted the NFC Title Game

Sure, he has had the benefit of a LeBeau-level defensive coordinator in the late Jim Johnson, but that defense has never really been a top-5 unit since that Super Bowl. It has been Reid's offense, which primarily has late round picks (as the Eagles use the early draft for primarily defensive players) that has made this team a playoff team eight times in the decade (one more than New England, two more than Pittsburgh). The knock on Reid is that his team falters in the NFC Title Game, losing it four times, twice at home. However, what people fail to mention is that the guy always got to the title game. Winning playoff games are hard, period. Bill Belichick's early-2000 success makes alot of people scoff at going one and done. Reid, until this year, has never done that, winning his first playoff game every time out. Reid has twice gone on the road in round two and pulled an upset. Reid has taken the Eagles further than anyone else.


7.) Tony LaRussa

The old brooding bespectacled one. Always looking dour, directly into the camera that fixes its lense, entrapped by his ornery gaze. LaRussa seems like some classic suave villain, a man whose curmudgeonly demeanor hides a brilliance. It does. The brilliance is not villainous, but much simpler, a brilliance of throwing strikes, getting hits and winning baseball games.

Tony LaRussa has done it all, winning big in Oakland and Chicago before turning his attention to St. Louis. He entered the new millenium, about to begin his fifth season in St. Louis, with a team that had missed the playoffs each of the past three years. What happened next was St. Louis magic, as in the shadow of the Gateway Arch, he proceeded to open the gates for the Cardinals to seven trips to the postseason, including six as a division winner, five trips to the NLCS, two to the world series and one World Series Title. He won over 90 games six times, and 100 back-to-back years. His teams could do everything, but they could pitch as well as any team ever. Credit has to be given to Dave Duncan, but even he alone could not turn Chris Carpenter, Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Jason Marquis and Jeff Suppan into a 105-win team. Albert Pujols helped too, but until 2004 when Rolen got into town, it was above average players, like Edgar Renterria, Jim Edmonds (who did have one huge year in 2004), Reggie Sanders, Fernando Vina and Placido Polanco that were key batter on 95 win teams.

The Cardinals were the Braves of the 90's in the NL, getting close every year, but in the end winning just one title. But having a team that year-in-year out competes to the highest level is vastly underrated. LaRussa excelled at bringing his team together. The Cardinals twice experienced tragedy, wether it was the deaths of pitcher Darryl Kile and beloved announcer Jack Buck within a week of each other in 2002 or the sudden drunk-driving death of Josh Hancock, and the team kept together and kept on winning. He may never have the titles of a Torre or a McCarthy, but he is as important. LaRussa continued his winning ways for a third straight decade.


6.) Mike Babcock

Amazingly, no hockey coach one more than one title in the 2000s (The Devils and Red Wings were the only franchises to win multiple titles, and they both had two different coaches), so I had to look to find the best hockey coach of the decade. I didn't have to look far. Mike Babcock is his name, and the hyper-focused handsome Canadian is the best coach of the 2000s in the NHL. He has been a coach for 6 full seasons, and all he has done is take the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost a tight 7 game series to the New Jersey Devils, and then led Detroit to the Cup Finals each of the last two years, finally winning a cup in 2008.

Mike Babcock was hired to Detroit in a time of transition. Gone were Shanahan, Federov and Yzerman. Gone was Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Dominik Hasek was a section 8, going in and out of retirement, showing some seriously bipolar attitude toward playing. Babcock had to replace a coach in Dave Lewis who took the Red Wings to the playoffs in each of his two years. All Babcock did is become the first coach in NHL history to coach a team to over 110 points in four straight years. His first year, the Red Wings had the third best record in NHL history. In two of his first three years the Red Wings had the best record in the NHL. The other two years: the second and third best. His teams have won at least two playoff series each of the past three years. His teams have been the envy of the league, as his puck-possesion game-plan has allowed overtly average players like Dan Cleary, Johann Franzen and Valterri Flippula to become star cogs in a well-oiled machine.

Hockey coaching is the hardest to judge, because it is also the hardest to understand. However, understanding Babcock's strategy is easy, just hold onto the puck. The same thing that made Barcelona into the most dominant club team of the past 3 years, made the Red Wings into a dynasty of success. He may never get the credit of the other 9 guys around him, and he has had his fair share of playoff burns, including two losses in 7-game Stanley Cup Finals, but he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as all of them.


5.) Terry Francona



I have had Red Sox friends tell me that as long as Francona knew when to take out Pedro, they would be fine with him. Fortunately for them, he knows so much more. Terry Francona has already taken the Red Sox to the playoffs more times than any other manager in team history, and has won two more world series than the previos 26 managers combined. He was the guy who broke the curse. He was the leaders of the "Idiots" (still the most apt nickname for a team in baseball history), with his big floppy ears, pointy nose, round face and wad of chew in his cheek. He became synonomous with the Red Sox, and the Red Sox with winning. The Red Sox are now the new-Yankees, the team that spends tons of money, that is hated by every fan base, and Francona oversaw the transformation perfectly.

There he was, in his first year. Sure, Grady Little may have left Pedro out there too long, but at least he won three games in the ALCS. Francona wasn't going to win any. He, in a quick, calculated decision, sent out Dave Roberts to pinch run, telling him to go wether Posada knows it or not. Off Roberts ran, off the Red Sox walked three innings later. Seven games and seven wins later, Francona was christened along with his idiot players. A hero was born. Three years later, with another miracle run from 3-1 down to Cleveland, he was beatified a saint of Boston. Move over Belichick, there was a new hero in town, and this one had the ability to tell a joke in public.

Baseball managers have it easy, but in Boston, that is the most pressured job in all of sports. He has to get up every day and walk into a band-box of demanding fans, fans that have tasted the water of victory, and need their thirst filled. Knowing that Terry Francona is the man heading the team, dealing with the bullpen and joking with his players, the thirst is already filled. Francona turned the question of a Boston World Series win into a 'when' instead of an 'if' and there is no better way to show what Terry has done.


4.) Tony Dungy



A football coach is generally a man with no life, a man who lets go of sunlight, ceding it for a life with the never-ending tick of the tape-projector in the background. Dungy was not a normal football coach. Dungy would see the daylight. Dungy would see his kids more than three hours a week. Dungy would not overreact to a loss, or celebrate too much with a win. Dungy would leave each game the way he entered, with a confident smile, knowing, win or loss, his work is done, and the real challenges and fun lie outside. Dungy was not a football coach who happened to be a classy guy, he was a classy gentleman who happened to know alot about football.

He inherited a team that was 6-10, that had a coach who scoffed and regrettably was furiated by the talk of playoffs. He inherited that team, and from day one told his players that football was not his life's work, that football was not the number one thing in his mind. He told he players he
wouldn't yell like Parcells, wouldn't scowl like Belichick and wouldn't tear up like Vermeil. He told his players he would win, and God knows he did that.

10-6, 12-4, 12-4, 14-2, 12-4, 13-3, 12-4. Those were the records of his seven Colts teams. Teams that, besides having a once-and-a-lifetime QB and a hall-of-fame receiver, had nothing much but discarded and undervalued players. They had no real defensive talent other than Dwight Freeney. They were helpless, but year in and year out, they won twelve games, and reached the playoffs. Dungy had the sad task of going head to head with a better coach and a better team at the hight of their powers twice, but never wavered, never questioned his team, his will and his players. He kept preaching patience, that when the time comes to reach the mountaintop, that he would be ready, and it would be joyful. They finally did, and it was.

Dungy means alot more to the world than being a football coach. He was a trailblazer, hiring african-american coaches and mentoring them up to head coach levels, and then becoming the first African-American coach to hold the Lombardi Trophy. He is an activist, a man more interested in helping better the country and the youth than scheming his Tampa-2, a system that he created. On the side, he coached football, and he was damn good at it.


3.) Phil Jackson



The man now has 10 rings, four from this decade, and did it all with a shape (the triangle) and some stars. He was able to prod Shaq to give him his best, and he did that. He was able to prod Kobe to change his ways, to embrace shooting and art, and was able to do that too. He entered this decade as the 'coach of Michael Jordan' an epithet that would inevitably be etched on his grave, something he would never overcome, never outgrow. He would always be Jordan's coach. Somehow, he has outgrown it, has passed it off. He is now his own guy, he is the coach of champions, period. Wether they wear 23 or 24 is irrelevant.

His triangle offense is a simple way to describe his coaching. Sure, it has some technical meaning about flex passing, changing the pivot corner and some other crap. However, it has a real meaning: calmness, helping and movement. The three virtues of a man embracing Zen were carried onto the basketball court and somehow molded to for teams that ran, that passed that shot and defended, and most importantly won. The 4 titles this decade are alot, but can be used as praise for the singular brilliance of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. However, they can moreso be used as proof of the ability of the Master of Zen.

Phil Jackson is an interesting character. He is probably the only man who has never gotten in trouble for sleeping with his boss. He is probably the only man ever to coach a team to three titles, then be forced to retire because of a player ruining the team, and then be courted with open arms and chocolates to come back. The greatest example of Phil's power, and his perfect new epithet: he is the only coach ever great enough to be able to write a book calling his star player a selfish teammate, then coach that same player and force him to not only pass more, but embrace being part of a team. That is a recipe for failure, for Phil, its a recipe for a Champion.


2.) Gregg Popovich



Like his star player, he is hidden beneath the San Antonio desert, cornered away from normal civilization, in the grout southern outpost of the NBA. Like his star player, he is the best at what he does, and has been for the full decade, taking a team blessed with one great player, and doing things normally reserved for teams with two or more. His three titles may be fewer than Phils for the decade, but his one star player is fewer than Phil's two. What shapes Popovich is a love for wine, business and defense, and his penchant for winning.

Pops too has never lost 30 games in a season since the decade started. Pops too has never gotten nearly the credit he deserved. He molded the Spurs, but he was also the one who bought the iron, assembling the team through his talent eye. He was the one who thought that Tony Parker was a star. He was the one who like the cutting ability of a spindly Argentinean named Ginobili. He was the guy who embraced a lunatic named Stephen Jackson, turning him into a team-first defensive presence. He was able to make the Spurs into the perfect team, one that had the defensive ability to outplay the Pistons, at that point the best defense in teh NBA, on the defensive side of the ball. He was the coach of the team that took on the 2005 Suns, in their "7 seconds or less" peak, and outran and outscored them.

The Spurs never backed down, and that came directly from their coach, a man with the complexion and temperment of a cool Army General, one strict enough to elicit great reaction, but smart enough to plan for any style of game. Popovich is tethered to Duncan, and why not. It was a perfect marraige, a coachable brilliant player paired with a brilliant coach. Four titles, 10 fifty win seasons later, Popovich can see the end of the Duncan era. He is smart enough to realize that it might be over, and that what he created was a masterpeice.


1.) Bill Belichick


The pain of this is hard to bear. I have to swallow pride (and some inebriation-causing beverages) before writing this. It will be difficult for I hate the man more than any human should hate someone they have never met. Yet, there is no way around it. He has been the best coach of the decade, if not the best coach of the past 2. He made a dynasty out of his own image, surly, smart and special. Bill Belichick is the best coach of the 2000s, in football and in all American sports. Period.

It wasn't always like this. After five average years in Cleveland, he was stunningly given a second chance, and not so stunningly started out with a nice 5-11 season. What followed next is NFL history. For the next 6 years (the real Patriots dynasty, not the offensive showboat that arrived in 2007), the Patriots won 70 games, and 12 more come playoff time. They were the team that could do it all. They could win games close, like 9-3 over Cleveland in 2003. They could win shootouts (38-34 over Indianapolis, 38-31 over Tennessee). They could run, they could pass, and boy could they play defense. Inside Belichick's mind was a super-computer (had a nice web-cam!!), analyzing everything about every other team, proccessing what he had learned, and formulating a plan of action. The plans were never the same. One game it was putting out seven d-backs, rushing just four and focusing the defense on the running back. One game it was running a 4-2-5, with the safety playing close coverage and the cornerback shading deep. One game it was playinga 4-3 alignment for the first time in 14 weeks, in what happened to be the Super Bowl. It never stopped, and it seemed like it never would.

Tom Brady wasn't yet Tom Brady the stat machine that he is now. Tom Brady was then just a nice player, a Jeff Garcia with more hair and fewer questions about his sexuality. It was Belichick's team, created in his own image. Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Ty Law and Richard Seymour seemed like bigger versions of Belichick, playing on the field with their master controlling the action from the sides. Whatever he wanted done, they would do. It was flawless, it was perfect, it was going 17-2 in back-to-back seasons. It was the Patriots, it was pure hell for the Patriots-haters, it was hell frozen over for Patriots fans wondering where this messiah in a hoodie had been the last 20 years.

Nothing is more perfect about Belichick and his team than their 2004 AFC Playoff march. First, the played a Colts team that was red hot, with a QB that had thrown for 49 tds, and a team that had score 523 points, and 49 more in the Wild-Card round. His ingenious defense held them to 3. Next round they faced a Steelers team that had reeled off 15 straight wins, and had the NFL's best defense. His offense score 41, including seven on a play he diagrammed himself. Nothing was beyond their reach, and that was because they had the master on their side.

The luster is now gone. It has been five years since the Patriots were on top, and two since their disastrous Super Bowl XLII loss. However, it is still a Belichick world. The mere presence of that man prowling the sidelines makes them favorites in nearly every game. The mere presence of his hoodie and his scowl makes the pits of the stomachs of the opposing teams fan's drop. Finally, it is the mere presence of his calm look, his confident aura, that makes everyone think, the Pats have a shot. They have Bill.

The #4 Athlete of the 2000s: Tim Duncan

Tim Duncan - The Quiet Giant

If the NBA really wanted to clean up its image, turn over a new leaf from a era filled with blinged-up swatches, booming glocks and booze, an era where the NBA seemed like a live-action hedonistic rap show (not entirely true, but to David Stern it was), then instead of instituting a communist edict of a dress code, they should have turned to the best player in their sport. No, not LeBron and his entourage, not Kobe and his alleged rapings, and no not Shaq and his superman persona (although as a back-up Shaq would have been better than the dress code). Dwyane Wade comes close, but the man in question has been around for 12 years, plodding around the desert Alamo outpost of San Antonio, working magic night in and night out for the entire decade. Tim Duncan, the greatest power forward in NBA history, is the best NBA player of the last decade, the most important one and the cleanest one. Why that triangular equation never transformed into marketability for a league that was dying for a wholesome superstar is more an indictment on the NBA's inability to function, not a shot at Duncan. Tim Duncan's glory days are past. His team will probably lose 30 games or more for the first time in his entire CAREER. He may never hold the Larry O'Brien trophy again. He doesn't need all those things, he needs the recognition he deserves. LeBron can wait, one of the 10 best NBA players ever is still here.

Since Tim Duncan was drafted #1 by San Antonio before the 1997-1998 season, he has been in the league for 12 full years. In this time, he has been an All-NBA first team player 9 times. All-NBA Defense first teamer 9 times. Twice he has won the MVP of the league, and twice more finished as the runner up (to Shaq and then KG). Again, he has never played on a team that lost more than 29 games (until probably this year). He has been to the finals four times, and won all of them, three times winning the Finals MVP. Yet, with all these numbers, including a five year stretch from the 1999-2000 season to the 2003-2004 season where he had 23 points, 12 rebounds 3 assists and 2 blocks per game each year, there is so much more that makes Duncan the best NBA player this decade. He won, and he was the sole reason.

Kobe might have as many Championships, but Shaq will fight anyone to the death if they say that Shaq was not the primary force on all three of those teams. Wade may have carried a team, but he still had Shaq at a first-second all-nba level. In the four years that Tim Duncan won NBA titles, he had a total of two third team all-NBA players (Robinson in 1998-1999 and Parker in 2006-2007) on his side. That is it. Yet, there was no better franchise all decade around him. They guy who passed in and out of San Antonio are a laundry list of average (Mario Elie, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliot, Stephen Jackson, Nazr Mohammad, Fabricio Oberto, Malik Rose, Speedy Claxton, Steve Smith, Devin Brown, Rasho Nesterovic, Brent Barry and Francisco Elson all played major minutes on the three title teams in the 2000s) sprinkled with some good players (Parker, Ginobili, Horry, Bowen). However, he was really the power-forward form of Steve Nash. In his and the Suns prime, Nash made Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, Jim Jackson and Quentin Richardson into good team players. The only difference with Duncan is he took lesser talent, and won titles. Sure, Duncan was handed one of the 10 best coaches in league history in Gregg Poppovich, but coaching only goes so far in the NBA. The NBA is about players. Other than a hockey goalie, no other sport has a player that can win titles basically by himself than NBA players, and no one did this like Duncan.

If you needed a rebound, he got it. If you needed a defensive stop, he got it. If you needed a pick, he got it. Hell, if you needed a last minute three-pointer to tie the game and kill off the last vestiges of a critically-acclaimmed offensive show, he got it. Look at these games that he posted in critical playoff games. In 2003, Duncan had a seven game stretch against the Lakers and Mavs in the playoffs where he had these games: 27-14-5 (points-rebounds-assists), 37-16-4, 40-15-7, 32-15-5, 34-24-6, 21-20-7, 23-15-6. To cap it off, he put up a 32-20-6 in Game 1 of the finals, and in Game 6, to close out a good Nets team, Duncan fell two blocks shy of a quadruple-double with a 21-20-10-8 (blocks). That was Duncan's peak, in the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 seasons. He could do no wrong. He did every single thing and NBA player is supposed to. When the Spurs needed Tim to drop 30, he dropped 40. When they needed him to take out Shaq, he did. He was the best defender of the past decade too, mercilessly helping his four teammates, turning the Spurs into the best team defense in the league year after year, with a revolving door of players around him. The fulcrum was Duncan. He stood strong, as the tides of ebbs and flows around him thrashed. He never wavered, he never got emotional or angry. He made the best with foreign players and cheap veterans. He was San Antonio. He was the most dominant force in the NBA.

What killed Duncan was his quiet persona. Duncan denied the spotlight more than he shied away. He didn't want to please anybody with his words or his jokes (he is supposedly a funny locker-room guy. Somehow that is more believable than the supposed Belichick jokester that people sware exist). He pleases with his play, his never ending desire to win and win alot. Duncan must hate what the Spurs are now, another run of the mill 45-50 win team, one that will always make the playoffs, never really challenge. That is what happens when you win 53-58-58-60-57-59-63-58-56-54 games in the last 10 years. That is what happens when you win three titles in five years, including beating down the James Cavs to a pulp in 2007. That is what happens when you exhude excellence, when you rise to the challenge night after night. Tim Duncan may never win the title again. Doesn't matter that much. He's already got four the hard way, winning without the help of another hall of famer (Robinson was a shell of himself in 2003). Other than the 2004 Pistons (who had 5 all-stars but no likely hall of famers) there probably was not a team in recent memory that won a title without at least two hall of famers as key contributers. Duncan won 3 without one, winning in every way from sweeping the Cavs to grinding out a 7-game series win over Detroit.

The NBA is now LeBron's world, a world where a stat-compiler that gets bailed out by refs and touches the ball on every play, allowing for assist totals that guys like Kobe or Wade would get if they demanded the ball that much. The NBA landscape has changed. The best true team is probably Denver, not relying on one player. The Duncan era is over. It is all about flash. Evidently David Stern has given up on making the NBA into a gentleman's game. Stern so much wanted a classy wholesome image for the league. He tried everything, and little did he know that the classiest superstar in recent memory (a philanthropic, polite giant of a man), who doubled as the best power forward in NBA history, was right there in from of him. Remember the Alamo, sure, but remember Duncan as well.

The 10 Greatest Athletes of the 2000s: 10-6

Before we start the countdown from 10-6, here are the guys 20-11, the guys that just missed the cut.

20.) Kurt Warner - If '99 was included, it might be hard to put him off. The most deserving great QB of all time.

19.) Nicklas Lidstrom - The only key link between the '02 and '08 Champs, the consumate pro, winner of 5 defensive player of the year trophies. He was the best defensman for a full decade.

18.) Steve Nash - the man who saved the NBA. Period.

17.) LeBron James - For all the hype, he has won a total of 0 NBA Final games, but

has lived up to the hype in every other way.

16.) Usain Bolt - Put on the best show in Olympics in the decade. Yes, for entertainment purposes, better than Phelps. But never did much in '04.

15.) Serena Williams - Considering she has not truly cared about tennis for much of the decade, and has probably never trained as hard as all those Russians, she is underated in her dominance.

14.) Rafael Nadal - The man who made Federer cry has to be celebrated, because he may never be the same again.

13.) Ben Roethlisberger - Brady's clone, but bigger and more entertaining, and could never allow guards to open fire at paparrazzi at his wedding.

12.) Shaquille O'Neal - Dominant for the first three years. Never the same again.

11.) Alex Rodriguez - Considering half the pitchers were probably roided up, those numbers are sick enough. Plus, he's got a ring now.

10 - Albert Pujols

Since his 2001 call-up, there has been no more perfect baseball player on the planet. Alex Rodriguez was close, but his roided-up body of work cannot compare to that of the, as of now, clean slugger, Mr. Pujols. In the beginning, he lacked speed on the basepaths and the ability to field. Now, he has been successful on 70% of his steals and has a gold glove in his coffers. He is great in every single way, making the fielding of first base into an artform, and hitting the ball with a sublime ease that makes it look simple enough that you wonder how no one else has been this good.

He is probably going to go down as one of the ten greatest baseball players of all time. So, if you ask, why is he down at number 10? Two reasons; one, all the other players on this list will probably be in the top-10 of their sport (its been a pretty good decade in sports), and two, there still is the steroid cloud hanging over it all. He has never been truly convicted, but there has been speculation. Here, we have a guy coming from the steroid mecca of the world, the Dominican. He had a truly uninspiring minor league career, where he was thin. He comes up as an udonis and proceeds to emulate Willie Mays for 9 years? A little suspicious, as is the fact that he is only "29" when he looks 34.

Anyway, that is getting into areas I should not, and Pujols doesn't deserve. That is mainly the talk of an Astros fan that has been burned by the Pujols too many times. He is too good. It is not fair for any one batter to be this good for this long. Considering that he hasn't had a solid hitter behind him from the 2005-2008 seasons, it makes the numbers so much more awesome. There seems to be no end to the limits of this mans power. Pujols has made St. Louis into the most consistent NL team of the last decade, and it is his face that fronts baseball. Let's just hope he is never added to the long list of disgraced "faces" of baseball in the next decade.

(Pujols highlight video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RT92ha8fb4)

9 - Michael Phelps

The most decorated olympian comes in at number nine. I could spend the next three paragraphs throwing verbal bouquets at him, but enough people, people that can write much better and be read by more people, have already done that. Instead, I will go the opposite direction, write about why he should not be any higher, even though he has been made out to be Michael Jordan in a wet-suit.

He's a swimmer. That negates those medals. Divide it by three. The Olympics are, in a word, unfair. Basketball teams can only win one medal. One, in two weeks. Swimmers have, essentially, like 25 different opportunites to win a medal. Even track stars don't have it as good. Usain Bolt didn't have the opportunity to run backwards and skip 200 meters for medals, but Phelps could swim four different ways. Also, it was his teammates record setting lap that allowed Phelps to win his second medal in '08. His teammate had to make up for Phelps' underwhelming run. Finally, I'm still not convinced he won that race that he won by like .001 seconds.

Again, he's a swimmer. The sport you play matters. Even as the most famous swimmer ever, he will never reach the fame that the rest of the guys on this list will (in some countries). I will give him some credit. He made America go swimming-crazy for two weeks, and forced American's to stay up late and watch his 1:00 AM races, which he somehow got the country to do. He should be celebrated like the champion he is, but I feel that what he did was barely more impressive than what Usain Bolt did in those same Olympics.

(Phelps highlight video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX0_fFsMzqk&feature=PlayList&p=C530FA82EF95D8D0&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2)

8 - Tom Brady

Again, here is someone that would probably be much higher on most lists. He is the king of hype. He is mytholicised like some Greek God. He is loved for knocking up one hot actress and leaving her stranded with the kid for the most succesful model of all-time. He is called "the Golden Boy" and was once known as the best QB of the decade (ha). He doesn't deserve that title, since without a defense that perennially ranked at the top of the league, allowing him to win games putting up games like 17-30 191 yards 1 td 1 int (patent: Throwing a Brady), he would be Jeff Garcia, with better looks and less questions about his sexuality. Then, he was given the best deep-WR ever, and the best possession receiver currently in the league, and a top-flight third receiver and put up 8 games that were better than any other QB. But none of that puts him on this list. What does is what he did in the clutch.

Being a clutch QB is a legitimate thing, but one whose label is missaplied alot. Peyton Manning is a clutch QB. Kurt Warner is not. Brady is. Brady never wavered, got better as the game got closer. Brady was able to channel all the focus, all the ability that he had, and unleashed it on tired defenses as the clocks wound down and the pressure amped up. He has an insane 14-4 playoff record, one that was bouyed by a 10-0 start, one in which he led five game-winning drives in the 4th quarter or OT. He was smart, resiliant and driven.

All of that is gone now. Brady was once quoted in 2008, after he lost the parking spot next the Belichick's in the practice facility given to the hardest working player, saying that "my priorities changed" in reference to his kid and wife. They sure have, Tom. He is now a major world-spokesman, more likely to be spotted at TMZ at 3AM than watching film. He is the guy that now converses with Pat O'Brien before games, and cares about his looks. He's the guy that goes to the press conferences with the 20,000 dollar suit, and has security guards open fire at papparazzi at his wedding. He is no longer the kid that once spiked the ball in the snow so hard he fell down. He's no longer the kid that went crazy butting helmets with Drew Bledsoe before the Super Bowl. He's the guy that walks off the field aimlessly after another soulless loss.

He may have changed. He may no longer have the drive to be great, the drive to conquer the league like he once had, and that Peyton and Drew currently have, but he had it, and for a majority of the decade, he was IT. He was the guy with the impossible to defeat spirit and concentration. He was unflappable, unstoppable and unbelievable. Just because that Brady is now long gone, does not mean we should forget about him. Brady was great. Brady was Super.

(Brady highlight video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDvijNO3iU)

7 - Kobe Bryant

Other than Michael Vick, there probably has not been a single athlete who has had a more tumultous decade. However, unlike Vick, the stain of his off-the-court actions are long gone. Dave Chappelle once joked Kobe was playing for his freedom. Fortunately for Kobe, that was true. He raised his game when the spotlight shown brighter and brighter on him.

It would be remiss not to mention that he was the one who broke up the Shaq/Kobe Lakers, running the man responsible for those first three titles, O'Neal, out of town. It would be more remiss not to mention that he was once charged with rape, which was eventually settled. However, there was no better scorer and determined figure in the NBA. He has changed his game as his career went on. No longer is Kobe driving the lane and throwing it down like D-Wade. No, Kobe has developed a reliable mid-range jump shot. Kobe has built an arsenal of low-post moves, and back-to-the-basket shots. Kobe evolved, into a more conceited man, but one that still had the fire of a dragon.

Kobe Bryant is again on top of the NBA world, leading the Lakers to another title, bookending the decade. In 2000, he was the precocious 21 year old, running as the virtuoso youngster sidekick, witnessing the most destructive force in NBA history play at an all-time high. He ended the decade as the most destructive force, showing why he is the best single force in the NBA. He is not LeBron. He is not the powerful force, the great passer, the primary ball-handler. He is better. He is just a sublime player, an artistic one. His game, unlike his passion, is not one of brute force, it is one of skill. That is the most amazing part of Kobe's transformation from athlete to possible-felon, to disgraced and cancerous Superstar to finally artist. It was a long one, but a journey that was eventually redeeming and fulfilling.

(Bryant highlight video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFj0KUzofNg)

6 - Roger Federer

I hate him. I despise him. He is secretly the biggest arrogant prick in sports. He is Belichick-level arrogant, just with a swiss accent that infatuates reporters to the level they seem not to understand the demeaning and self-aggrandizing words flowing out of his mouth. He is the one tennis player that is actually better looking than his WAG. He is a tool that comes out to the Centre Court in Wimbledon in a dress pant and jacket. He is a serious tool for going down to the ground in tears even in his fifth US Open win. He is the greatest Open Era tennis player of all time.

I can try to pray for some new, more interesting less robotic player to come along and break his record of 16 slam titles, but for now, he's the best there is. Pete Sampras set his record of 14 titles in the US Open in 2002. I don't think he ever thought that his record would last only seven years, and be beaten by a guy who at that time had 0 major wins. There has to be some explanation of Federer's brilliance. He is like Pujols x 10, he is just too consistently good to be true. Sure, from '07 to now, he has been beatable, winning just 7 of 13 majors. But the fact that winning only 7 of 13 majors is "beatable", which it is since he won 9 out of 14 before that, defines his greatness. His three year run from '04 to '06 will never be topped, as he lapped the field easily, winning games so efficiently that when a set went to Federer 6-4 it was a minor upset. He was sick, making passing shot after passing shot from every flank. Thank God for Rafael Nadal, or Federer might have 20 majors by now.

Nadal is really the only person ever to get into Federer's head, ever to have the mental fortitude to compete with Federer. Other players just wilt in his presence (see Murray, Andy). The battle is over before they enter the ring, knowing that perfection is required just to have a chance. There have been players that came along with as much talent (Safin), as much strength, agility and shotmaking-ability (Nadal) and as much "screw-you" determination (Del Potro, Djokovic at times), but no one combines all three things like Federer. The Federer cocktail is the strongest ever. He is the greatest silent assassin, never seeming bothered. In his prime, he never even seemed to sweat. He was truly the highest form of perfection an athlete can acheive. I hate him, but as Wes Mantooth said to Ron Burgundy, "I hate you, but God Damnit do I respect you."

(Federer highlight video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XegH7cFn1YA&feature=related)