Charles Barkley has been around long enough to meet the greatest basketball talents of two generations, and he went to college with Bo Jackson. Tuesday night, Barkley said the greatest athlete in history was NFL quarterback Tom Brady in the mountains of Montana.
Barkley made his commentary on TBS and TNT’s broadcast of Capital One’s The Match, a match-play round of golf featuring professional golfers with NFL quarterbacks, with defending champions Brady and Phil Mickelson battling Aaron in this year’s match Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau.
Barkley, one of the guest commentators for the match, made his comment after Brady got a nice shot at the green.
“Tom Brady is the greatest athlete of all time, not just any soccer player” Barkley.
These are big words from Barkley, who was the top scorer in the original Dream Team in 1992, which was the first gathering 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 moved to Auburn Universityburn in the mid-1980s, alongside football star Bo Jackson and baseball star Frank Thomas. Barkley has covered Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tiger Woods and other megastars during his time as an NBA studio analyst.
There are other athletes that might be considered including Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Jesse Owens, DeionSanders, 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 entering his 22nd NFL season – runner-up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, in which he won six Super Bowl rings. He won the Super Bowl last year in its first season in Tampa.
Brady and Mickelson won that event last year when they beat the tandem of Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning; Brady piggybacked the Super Bowl LV, and Mickelson followed suit by winning this year’s US Open.
Rodgers, three-time NFL MVP, is the reigning MVP. He lost the NFC championship game to Brady and the Bucs this year. DeChambeau is the 2020 US Open champion and he competed for this year’s PGA championship on the final day.
Rodgers made all kinds of headlines this off-season for wanting to leave the Green Bay Packers and join another team.
Not only is the match a fun game of golf to watch on television; the round of golf also raises money for various charities. The game takes place at The Reserve at Moonlight Basin in Big Sky, Montana.
