Best athlete you played with or against

Played against Brian Bosworth in high school football. We made him cry. Of course we had a Parade All-American running back (paranoid schizophrenic and in prison now) that helped a lot. Played summer ball with Ellis Burks. He was nothing special at that time. Put together a charity softball team once that included Todd Van Poppel, Ben Grieve and a still high-school-aged Vernon Wells. Best player on that team was Olympian Jennifer McFalls, our ringer shortstop.

 

Several members of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team.

My hockeydb listing doesn't quite match up.

 

Soccer player Scott Vermillion. Probably would be on the USNT had it not been for several injuries.

Championship game of the Governor's Cup in 1995, we lost 4-3 in OT. Vermillion had all four goals, including a free kick in OT. I was on the edge of the wall, and the shot went about two feet past me, curved back and went into the goal. My jaw dropped. That's the kind of shit you don't see in Kansas U-19 soccer.

 

A bit of a twist on this I just thought of -- a sports trivia contest a friend and I put together for our high school paper was won by a future Mr. Irrelevant and NFL offensive lineman, Matt Elliott.

 

Dennis Latimore's dad was the RA at my dorm in college.

I haven't played with or against any big name athletes, but when I was a senior in high school our football team (I was halfback, def. end or linebacker, depending on the defense) shellacked another team 14-0 in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs.

The coach of that team was Dennis Franchione.

 

Was the team 14-0 or was the score 14-0?
If the score was 14-0, can that really be a shellacking?

 

Only if the other team only had 50 yards of total offense or only 2-3 first downs.

 

I ran track in high school with B.J. Askew, who plays fullback for the Buccaneers know. The guy ran the 300 hurdles, and had the worst form I've ever seen but he was so fast in between each hurdle that it didn't matter.

 

Was he any good?

 

Played football against Jake Delhomme (he was only a freshman though, and we picked him off four times in a blowout win over them). Just missed out on playing against Peyton Manning. My alma mater played them the year after I graduated.

Played baseball against Danny Ardoin (minor league journeyman catcher whose had a couple cups o' coffee in the bigs with Colorado). Also played against Joey Fontenot (drafted by Giants, traded to Marlins for Robb Nen). Fontenot struck me out in three pitches, the last of which was a curveball I swung about 10 feet over.

Played basketball against Shaquille O'Neal. It was just a pickup game, but it was still a cool experience. He blocked my shot like 100 times. The best part was that it was in my parent's driveway. He was dating the daughter of one of my mom's best friends at the time.

 

Played pickup hoops with a bunch of NBA and D-1 guys -- Mark Jackson, John Salley, Pearl Washington, Vinnie Johnson, Malik Sealy, Mitch Richmond. Lived in Syracuse part of one summer and played hoops with Rob Moore (NFL), Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas.

When I lived in Miami, the Heat often worked out at my gym and I got dunked on by Harold Miner and I blocked Rony Seikley's shot.

Once shot around with Bill Bradley -- I don't think that he missed in about 30 shots.

 

This one jogged my memory. I spent a few years overseas when I was a kid (my dad was in the oil business). One year, our school hosted a big basketball tournament for all the American schools in the Mediterranean/Middle East.

The American Community School of Athens had some 7-foot guy named Rony Seikaly playing for them. He went off for like 50 points against our team, whose tallest guy was a 6-4 Turkish guy. I wasn't on the team (I was in the seventh grade). About a year later, after we've returned stateside, I'm watching the Final Four and some freshman named Seikely is ripping it up for Syracuse.

And, from a personal standpoint, I played high school football against Brett Favre's younger brother, Jeff. He was the quarterback just like Brett was, though obviously nowhere near as good (he ended up being the holder at Southern Miss).

They beat us something like 45-8. Their dad, Irvin, was the head coach. Guy's head looked like a car battery with a crewcut.