Charles Barkley has been around long enough to see the greatest basketball talents of two generations, and he went to college with Bo Jackson. Tuesday night in the mountains of Montana, Barkley said the greatest athlete in history is NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
Barkley made his comment during the TBS and TNT broadcast of 'Capital One's The Match,' which is a match-play golf round pitting professional golfers with NFL quarterbacks. This year's match has defending champions Brady and Phil Mickelson against Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau.
Barkley, who is one of the guest commentators for the match, made his comment after Brady landed a nice shot onto the green.
"Tom Brady is the greatest athlete of all time, not just any football player," Barkley.
These are tall words coming from Barkley, who was the leading scorer on the original Dream Team in 1992, which was the first assembly of professional basketball players for the Olympics. Among the players on that team were Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing and a handful of other players.
Barkley went to Auburn University in the mid-1980s alongside football star Bo Jackson and baseball standout Frank Thomas. Barkley has covered Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tiger Woods and other mega stars in his time as an NBA studio analyst.
There are other athletes who could be considered, including Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Jesse Owens, Deion Sanders and many others.
Some people like to argue that Brady isn't even the best quarterback of all-time. It's hard to argue that he's now going into his 22nd NFL season—second with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, where he won six Super Bowl rings. He won the Super Bowl last year during his first season in Tampa.
Brady and Mickelson won this event last year when they beat the tandem of Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning. Brady piggybacked that to go on and win Super Bowl LV, and Mickelson followed by winning this year's U.S. Open.
Rodgers, a three-time NFL MVP, is the reigning MVP. He lost the NFC Championship game this year to Brady and the Bucs. DeChambeau is the 2020 U.S. Open champion, and he was in contention for this year's PGA Championship on the final day.
Rodgers has made all kind of offseason headlines for his desire to leave the Green Bay Packers and join another team.
The Match isn't just a fun, made-for-TV golf game, though. The round of golf also raises money for various charities. The Match is being played at The Reserve at Moonlight Basin in Big Sky, Montana.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Scott McDonald is a Newsweek deputy night editor based in Cape Coral, Florida. His focus is assigning and writing stories across all topics, from news to politics, business, weather, sports and international news. Scott joined Newsweek in 2018 after a lengthy career of print journalism in Texas, including The Dallas Morning News, where he was a sportswriter, and he's a voter for the Heisman Trophy. He has been a newspaper editor-in-chief and also a newspaper publisher. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. You can get in touch with Scott by emailing s.mcdonald@newsweek.com. Languages: English
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