“Hero’s get remembered but legends never die.” That was a line from Art LeFleur who played the Babe in a dream that Benny the Jet had in the Sandlot. It’s a fun line for the kids to say and remember but it seems like the legends do never die in today’s sports landscape. Our most recent example was Phil Mickleson taking home the PGA Championship at age 50 behind a boozed up Kiawah Island in South Carolina. The more fit and still as fun and quirky Phil pulverized the golf course like a terminator. Phil has been wearing his terminator shades to protect his face since he has been using a cream to fight skin cancer. But we like to pretend Phil wears the shades to intimidate the golf course and his opponents. To show that age is just a number, and that behind hard work and dedication that the legends can continue their greatness beyond any conceivable age we would have considered in yesteryear. We can enter our Bartolo Colon joke here (the big sexy was almost as productive as a pitcher in his early 40s with the Mets than in his early 20s with the Indians) but Phil is just the most recent example of the old guys still running the sports landscape.
Tom Brady’s excellence is well documented. But winning the Super Bowl at age 43 really is remarkable beyond belief. You can say that the Bucs have a ton of talent and wouldn’t be wrong but this team was 7-9 the season before Brady came to town. Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl in 2015 and John Elway in 1998 both with the Broncos ironically (Aaron Rodgers anyone???) but both of those quarterbacks were certainly not the same Quarterback they were earlier in their careers (certainly in Manning’s case). They were spearheaded by great supporting cast (calm down Broncos nation look at videos in the late 80’s of John Elway his skills have deteriorated some even though he was still highly competent in the end). Even in both of those cases Elway was 38 and Manning 39 as they rode their white horses into the Colorado Sunset with a championship. Tommy boy threw 40 touchdowns last season and was very good in the playoffs as a 43 year old (or a half decade older than the former Bronco greats). The Buccaneers have a fantastic supporting cast as well and Tom Brady isn’t quite the Quarterback he was when he was in New England. But at 44 now, Tom Brady is still one of the best in his sport and an even more valid case of an older legend delaying his end than one reminiscent weekend in South Carolina (which may be the case with Phil, jury still out, he can still hit the long ball).
Lebron James is 36 years old. If you have ever watched NBA Basketball 36 might as well be 46 in golf or 41 for a quarterback. The NBA (especially today) is a sport where athleticism is king. Don’t believe me ask Jimmer Fredette who looked like the best college basketball player we’ve ever seen but could barely hang onto an NBA roster because he wasn’t athletic enough to guard NBA Wings. Yet Lebron at 36 is showing some (minimal however) signs of decline as he has been banged up a bit for the first time in his career since coming to Los Angeles two years ago. But if your watching Lebron play against the Suns so far in this first round series and how he took over the play in game against the Warriors I would still say Lebron at age 36 even with all of these unbelievable young talents (example Devin Booker on the Suns) still appears to be the best in the league and we wouldn’t be surprised if he can play at an elite level until his 40th birthday at this rate. I did some research on NBA Players being great into their late 30’s and the only player I could find was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was still averaging 23.4 on 56.5 percent field goal percentage in his age 38 season before a sharp decline in production over the last three seasons of his career. Michael Jordan who was still at his apex at age 35 in 1998 would have been a great case study as he showed no signs of decline at that point. But M.J retired after winning the finals over the Jazz on that legendary push off (I mean crossover) on Bryon Russell. Three years Michael Jordan came back with the Wizards in his age 39 and 40 seasons and was still a good player but not the player he was with his time in Chicago. If M.J didn’t have a three year hiatus from the game maybe things would have been different. One thing is certain, M.J would likely be in the Wayne Gretzky conversation as best to ever play without debate if he had played at a high level into his late 30s which there was no indication to believe otherwise. But this is all a speculator argument in the curious case of Michael Jordan but one thing is certain, Lebron is already going into unchartered waters which Brady and Mickleson has already entered. It is the Golden Age of sports.
Roger Federer in Tennis is still playing at an elite level at age 39. Diana Taurasi in women’s basketball at age 38 (even though her chest injury is a small cause for concern). Cristiano Ronaldo in men’s soccer at age 36 is still a scoring machine. These are all prime examples of great athletes still at the top of their sports when in the past almost every great if still playing would be relegated to more of reserve or secondary roles if still active. Emmitt Smith with the Cardinals or Robert Parish on the Bulls comes to mind (yes those two great finished their career on those teams at least Parish got a ring!). We know that exercise and diet regimens are a big reason for this ability to prolong their greatness. But the younger athletes also have access to all of these advantages to help keep the body healthy and fit so it has to be more than that right? Maybe it’s not maybe it is, one thing is for sure though. The Legends of our games are being able to bring us legendary moments for just a little bit longer these days. That alone makes sports today great. This keeps us glued to the TV on a Sunday watching lefty hit bombs with the ocean wind to his back. Watching on a Wednesday night Lebron make a clutch three pointer from the parking lot. Watching on a Sunday night Tom Brady carve up NFL Defenses like a conductor symphonizing his masterpiece. Watching on a Sunday morning Ronaldo make magic happen with his feet when we thought that foot magic only came from Tap Dancers and Ballerinas. The Legends keep you watching, bring you back for more. Father time will always be undefeated, but Father time is not winning his fight as easily as he did in the past. The greatness to unparalleled lengths is not an outlier anymore, and we are forever grateful for that. Thank you again for last Sunday Phil, I enjoyed every minute of it.