Top 10 Athletes: According to Vineesh

Today in sports, there are so many stand out athletes that are out to make a name for them selves, and not to live in shadows of other stars that once were in their shoes. Recently, I have been thinking about my favorite professional athletes, and those that are most dominant in their sports. Some of these athletes are known all around the world, and others are under the radar. None the less, these athletes play the game hard, and are well respected for what they do. Here are my top 10 athletes of today:

10) Albert Pujols-the most consistant hitter in baseball over the past 5 years

9) Larry Fitzgerald- best reciever in the NFL, at this point in time

8) Alexander Ovechkin- most overlooked young athlete in the world

7) Usain Bolt- fastest man ever
6) Rafeal Nadal- the changing ofthe guards became official in my eyes at the Ausie Open

5) Cristiano Ronaldo- footballer of the year

4) LeBron James-52, 9, 11 at the garden...

3) Tiger Woods- though injured, he will in 4 majors this year

2) Micheal Phelps- knows how to win, and party with college kids

1) Kobe Bryant-KOBE

Phelps smokes Weed? Who cares?

News of the World leaked a photo of Michael Phelps olympic gold medalist and superstar, hitting the bong. And my first and only reaction about this is, who the hell cares? I think this probably makes him more likeable to college kids everywhere, but that's not the point.

The man is 23-years-old, just off a historic run against the best in the world and emerged from the training for the first time in god knows how long. And he smoked weed. Holy shit, lets all stop what we're doing and pretend to be overly outraged and concerned that this happened. How dare this man do this, when half the population has and a ton of the college guys his age currently are doing it all the time. That's not to say that it's okay, but I don't want to hear about how he's a role model and he should know better.

The real people who should know better are the idiots who reported this. If they were role models, they would have realized what a national icon he is to kids everywhere and they wouldn't have published this picture. Now that would have been the intelligent thing to do. But no, let's publish the photo and rip the kid and make some money. Good for us.

News of the World sucks, just like a lot of media outlets that find it convenient to rip people like Michael Phelps and tarnish them all they please for being role models when they are rarely responsible and/or role models themselves.

Phelps Fever

I am going to make a pretty bold statement, but its one that I believe many Americans can agree with. Michael Phelps is the greatest athlete of all-time. Period. Not only the greatest swimmer, not only the greatest Olympian, but the very best athlete the world has ever seen.

11,028 athletes traveled to Beijing to compete, but none of them faced the pressure Michael Phelps encountered. Phelps didn't just handle the pressure, he thrived in it. Phelps didn't just dominate, he captivated the entire country. After the 4x100 relay, amidst the high fives and the "U-S-A" chants, I realized how special Phelps's performance was.

The most impressive feat by Phelps was his extraordinary comeback to win the 100m butterfly by just .01 seconds. To me, a legend was born at the end of that race. That was one of several dramatic finishes, and Phelps owes a lot of credit to his teammates. Something that the humble Phelps will gladly do.

As Phelps captured his eighth gold of the Beijing games, I tried to brainstorm a list of the greatest athletes of all-time. To me, Phelps sits atop that list. Heres what I came up with, in no particular order:

Tiger Woods
Babe Ruth
Jim Brown
Jim Thorpe
Mark Spitz
Michael Jordan
Muhammad Ali
Wayne Gretzky
Lance Armstrong
Jerry Rice
Pele


You can make a case for any one of these athletes, but nobody (maybe with the exception of Spitz) displayed the type of dominance Phelps just did. Of course, we are comparing apples to oranges here, and it is quite possible that there is no 1 single "best athlete of all-time". However, all things considered, I'm sticking to my guns. Michael Phelps is the greatest ever.