We’re getting pretty tired of the “(insert sport here) isn’t as good as it used to be” conversation — aka the sports equivalent of “in my day, we had to walk through the snow uphill both ways.” Seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson apparently is just as sick of it as we are.
A NASCAR fan tweeted at Johnson on Wednesday, suggesting the current playoff system delegitimizes his seven titles, and the 41-year-old driver wouldn’t be as successful in a straight points-based championship. Rather than kindly tell the fan to stick his opinion where it won’t receive much sunlight, Johnson posed an alternate scenario, which arguably is more intriguing to think about.
Johnson’s question hits at a debate that’s so common it was the basis for the movie “Rocky Balboa:” how would the best athletes from different generations perform against each other while at their peaks?
We obviously have no way to definitively answer that. So, until the day when athletes are cryogenically frozen during their primes in preparation for a true all-star competition, this will continue to be a debate in sports bars around the world.
Thumbnail photo via Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports Images
