Most intelligent/well rounded athletes

D

DeadHorse

1,000+ Posts
The news that Latrell Sprewell is broke got met thinking.

The Link

I'm always impressed when I meet or see a professional athlete who comes across as intelligent, well rounded, and/or original. A large portion of them seem to be dullards who mumble their way through an interview before blowing their money soon after they're out of the game.

That being said, here are a few I could think of. I guess the criteria is they're intelligent AND their scenes aren't a train wreck. (This excludes the Dennis Rodmans of the world.)

NBA:

David Robinson
Grant Hill
Shaquille O'Neal -- I always thought he was sharp but who knows about the $$$$
Shane Battier

NFL:

Tiki Barber -- Seems to very intelligent with diverse interests
Peyton Manning -- Seems smarter than he lets on
Tony Dungy -- Not a player but still qualifies

College football:

Hell, I don't know. They're still in college. A few coaches seem sharper than others, though.

What do ya'll think?
 
Tim Duncan seems pretty intelligent and Roger Staubach has made a nice career for himself outside of football.

Didn't Robert Smith retire to become a doctor or something?
 
robert smith is very bright. isn't that one of the reasons he got out of football early? to pursue other interests? there's some story about him in his college days about non athlete classes and pre med and whatever, i just can't remember it.
 
How could you forget Michael Jordan out of the NBA?

I think Reggie Jackson claimed to have an IQ of about 160 as well.
 
I believe Pappy Ortiz lives quite modestly in Milwaukee during the offseason. I'd call that intelligent and thinking of the long term.
 
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Steve Young. Didn't he go to law school? Not that that alone means anything special. But he seems intelligent.

Also, Steve Largent.

We're you serious about Shaq? I don't know much about him, but he always comes across as a caveman to me. Then again, I'm an idoit myself...
 
I later thought of Tiger Woods and Kobe. Both went to Stanford and Tiger seems to keep his scene way under control.

I remember reading once where Roger Staubach said winning the Heisman was merely the last line on his resume'. He's always impressed me. I was a big Cowboy fan as a kid and love watching him but the older I got, the more of a hetero man crush I developed on him.

He also had a great line once. He said "I have as much sex as Joe Namath but it's with the same woman."

On another subject, imagine Muhammad Ali in his prime right now with the amount of media we have compared to back then. He'd be the biggest start in the world.
 
That's right but wasn't Kobe going to go there had he gone to college? He also speaks 4 languages or something like that.

Aside from his incident with that girl, he's always seemed intelligent.

Another name I had forgotten but if we're talking old school, we should mention Gerald Ford. He turned down the NFL to go to Michigan Law School.
 
Upgrayedd's post made me think of another athlete-turned-judge.

Texas' own Dwight Jefferson
The Link
(Now an attorney/mediator)

UT D-End, co-team captain, and 1978 Sun Bowl MVP. I worked at camp longhorn one summer and his son was in my cabin. He was a terrific kid.
 
Kobe speaks four languages because he spent his childhood years playing hoops and growing up in Europe.

Robert Smith is an attorney, very bright guy, shocking that he came form Ohio.

Lenny Dykstra, has a investment company for former and current ball players and is a frequent guest on the Jim Kramer show.

Yes, Steve Young is crazy smart as well.

Fran Tarkinton is very good at business, owns several businesses and is a sough after public speaker.

Tiki is pretty smart, he earned that UVA degree and he got pooper from Melissa Stark, good enough for me
 
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