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By Kent Larsen
How Great An Athlete Was Steve Young?
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA -- Australian scientist Charles Davis is trying to do
the impossible -- rank athletes of different sports and different times
against each other to determine the greatest athlete of all time. His
solution measures how much better athletes are than their peers, and
mentions LDS athlete Steve Young as one of the best in professional
football, but not as high as his #1 pick, Cricket star Don Bradman.
Unlike other efforts to name sports' greatest, Davis uses common statistical
tools in an attempt to rank athletes. He constructs bell curves for each
sports, using sports statistics for that sport. He then calculates a
"Z-score" for each athlete, showing how much better he is in that statistic
than his peers. Using this measure, an athlete with a Z-score of 2 is
exceptional, while a 3 puts the athlete among the best that ever played his
sport.
The only LDS athlete mentioned in Davis' article is professional football
star Young, who tied with his predecessor on the San Francisco 49ers Joe
Montana as the best to ever play professional football. Both Young and
Montana had Z-scores of 3.1. In contrast, Bradman, Davis' pick for best
athlete ever, was so much better than anyone that ever played Cricket that
he earned the phenomenal Z-score of 4.4. Other well-known athletes scored
include soccer's Pele, 3.7; Michael Jordan, 3.4; and baseball great Ty Cobb,
3.6.
Source:
They don't come better than the Don
Sydney Australia Morning Herald 10Nov00 S2
By Charles Davis
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