Posted by sjpoker on 6/28/2016 6:00:00 PM (view original):
Let me ask this -
Buddy Ryan or Kim Kardashian - who is more impactful?

I think this is an easy one. But perhaps not.

:"Celebrities" are always more impactful than athletes. Some 11 y/o girl in South Korea has no idea who Buddy Ryan is but can tell you what Kimye did last weekend.

Posted by tecwrg on 6/29/2016 8:04:00 AM (view original):
Hard for me to be fully objective since I live right in the heart of the current WCBB universe, but I'll agree that Pat Summitt put the sport on the map. The NFL is and always will be much bigger and more popular, but it was around and successful a long time before BR came along. WCBB . . . . not so much before PS.

Is WCBB really "on the map"?

On a typical day in October, where does WCBB fall on the sports pages? Sports talk radio? National television coverage?

If I started a list:
NFL
CFB
MLB
NBA
CBB
NHL
NASCAR
UFC
Tennis
Golf

And probably a few others that fail to come to mind. Admittedly, I watched more WCBB than NBA within the last year but that's not the norm.

More people are aware of it now than they were 30 years ago.

If you asked a number of random people with at least a moderate interest in sports who the WCBB powerhouse is these days, I would guess a number of them would be able to come up with the right answer. They may not be able to name a single player from the team (I can't, and they're "local" to me), but they would know the school.

They would probably also recognize names like Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma.

I think people in your area would know. I asked my wife last night(she's moderate interest in sports because she's stuck with me) and she knew both Summitt and Ryan. Summitt because a girl she worked with years ago loved WCBB(she played at some small school) and Ryan thru me. She would not know UConn or Auriemma.

Not sure what this means but my 15 year old son, who has never seen a women's college basketball game knew who Pat Summitt was and mentioned it to me the day she died. He also played on his high school football team and watches the NFL, but I doubt he has any idea who Buddy Ryan was.

I would never debate the worth or quality of life and achievement of two people who happened to pass away within days of each other.

People of different sex and in different sports. In a non sports thread. Or a sports thread. Or any thread. Or for any reason.

Celebration of achievements and notice of failure is normal and subject to discussion. But these people just passed away.

I'm more concerned with her quality of life and care in the last days of a horrible disease.

I'm more concerned with the emotional health of the physically failing Ryan.

Whereas one was lost in a mist, the other possibly mostly bonded with family, that is where my mind is.

I refuse to make some this over that comparison. Two wonderful and hard working neighbors have left us.

Their numbers can be printed in a book. Their existence can never be replicated. I simply accept the results.

Oh look Dougout commented. Not sure what he said, but I am sure it was profound.