Dave Winfield

[Diamond_Dog]

Though he never played college football, the Minnesota Vikings selected Winfield in the 17th round of the 1973 NFL Draft. He is one of six players ever to be drafted by three professional sports (the others being George Carter, Jo Jo White, Noel Jenke, Mickey McCarty and Dave Logan) and one of three athletes along with Carter and McCarty to be drafted by four leagues.

From Wikipedia

[True Dough]

1. Interesting

But let me ask you this: Are you more impressed with Winfield's 22-year MLB career and superior stats or by Bo Jackson's 8-year MLB career (cut short by a serious hip injury) with numbers that fall well short of Winfield's but yet knowing that Jackson was also a standout NFL player?

[Diamond_Dog]

2. I think each was impressive in his own right

I’m not trying to say one is better than the other here

[BeyondGeography]

3. Good answer

Jackson was one-of-a-kind in football and baseball, but I saw a lot of Winfield in NY and he was amazing to watch. One of the few baseball players you could actually imagine excelling at all three sports. Both were to be admired.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. That's my thinking, as well

[True Dough]

4. I respect that answer

But I'm going to make the case for Bo because he actually did it. He wasn't just drafted in multiple sports (remarkable in its own right), but he excelled in both baseball and football at the professional level. Other than Deion Sanders, there have been few athletes in the past half century to accomplish that at such a high level.

Go back far enough and you have Jim Thorpe.

Michael Jordan was well below average at baseball, but one of the best basketball players ever, so even he fell short.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. Jim Thorpe was just an amazing athlete.

He could excel at anything! only very few could even come close.

I’ll respect your answer about Bo, as well.

Didn’t Sanders do it (NFL and MLB) for just one year? I’ll have to look it up.

[True Dough]

7. Maybe you're thinking about Neon Deion playing baseball and football in the same day?

That has only been done once. His NFL and MLB careers overlapped for about eight seasons.

[Diamond_Dog]

8. You are correct True Dough

[ProfessorGAC]

9. While I'm Not Disputing That...

...the White Sox management commented that in Jordan's last months in Double A, he was making dramatic improvements both at the plate & in the field.
Their head of player development said he was a year away from major league quality.
So, while it's unlikely he would have been a star baseball player, he may not have been below average.
And, I'm not even a Sox fan!
Admittedly, I was a big Jordan fan.
I still say it's Bo, though. Made the all-star team in 2 sports!