GQ Magazine has a cover story this month naming the 25 Coolest Athletes of All Time. The article itself is not online yet on GQ’s website, although USA Today has a copy of the list, in alphabetical order. And I have a lot of issues with the list.
There are no women on it (wasn’t Billie Jean King cool? How about Jennie Finch or Brandi Chastain?), the “All Time” in the name seems to cover only the last 50 years, and there are way too many weird choices (Ted Turner? Gary Player?) But the biggest shocker is that Derek Jeter, arguably the coolest athete of his generation, does not make the cut. Ridiculous.
I’m sorry, but if you don’t have Jeter on the Coolest Athletes list, then you’ve got nothing. Tom Brady, Allen Iverson, and Tim Lincecum made the list, but the Captain didn’t. Neither did Mickey Mantle, or Reggie Jackson, or Rickey Henderson or any other Yankee (and only two baseball players are on the list — Lincecum and Bob Gibson.) Even hockey player Derek Sanderson makes the list, but Derek Sanderson Jeter doesn’t? C’mon now.
Jeter ought to be on the “25 Coolest Athletes’ list just based on all the celebrities he’s dated over the years. As a friend of mine notes, Jeter had Mariah Carey as his girlfriend when that really meant something. Not to mention all the other women, like Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel.
I’ve heard one definition of cool being the kind of guy that other men want to be, and that women want to date. Jeter’s picture ought to be in the dictionary with that definition!
No matter how overhyped Jeter’s been as a player, you can not underrate his coolness factor. There’s a reason so many advertisers have paid him so much money to pitch their products. And any so-called “Coolest Athlete” list that doesn’t have Jeter is simply worthless.
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