Tom Brady trains with Goueidou

[Washuyama]

20 hours ago, John Gunning said:

A discussion on the greatest multi-sport athletes and no one has mentioned Jim Thorpe? For shame.

 Just like a reporter, go to print before researching...  

[Yamanashi]

I've often thought that NFL offensive lineman would be the best fit for sumo.  They're fiercely intelligent, big and strong, and they pretty much own oshidashi.  And they'd be giddy with excitement when you told them that in Sumo ... holding is legal!

[Asashosakari]

Well, plenty of the Hawaiian rikishi from the 80s and early 90s had a football background (granted, HS/college only, not NFL) and the big bodies, and they largely failed to make an impact. Having the right offensive tools for sumo is nice, but I don't know how many NFL-level offensive linemen could develop enough defense or versatility to not find themselves hopelessly lost against opponents who don't immediately fold in the face of Lineman Pushing Plan A.

[Yamanashi]

Incidentally, Akebono (Chad Rowan) went to Hawaii Pacific University on a basketball scholarship.

[Asashosakari]

17 hours ago, John Gunning said:

Taking someone already proficient in one sport and expecting immediate success in another is generally a bad notion for many reasons but if those guys who have made it in the NFL started sumo at an early age I'm sure many if not most would do well. Just my experience but top class athletes have a very different mindset to regular people when it comes to such challenges. A tiny few (maybe) got where they are coasting on pure raw physical talent '99% perspiration' is truer nowhere else than in professional sport. Everyone has the will to win as they say but few have the will to do what it takes to win. 

I think that's a rather different issue. No doubt that many "has what it takes to make money in professional sports" people have the core talent to be successful in a number of different sports (and it's often down to happenstance which one they end up competing in), but I thought we were talking about guys who actually had trained for NFL-level football, not just guys who theoretically could play NFL-level football. The latter shifts the discussion from "how good can successful football players become at sumo?" to "how can sumo grab talented kids who will otherwise embark on a football career?" (Or worse, to wildly speculative debates along the lines of "how good would X have been if he had trained for sumo instead?", which I personally have zero interest in.)