Top athletes as politicians...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Not people who merely played a sport but major atheletes... big names.

Bill Bradley is a good guy and a smart guy.

Jim Bunning is a psychotic dunce.

Heath Schuler (a big name in college) is a dunce.

Jack Kemp was something of a crackpot but not as offensive as the average gold-standard nut.

I don't know that much about Lynn Swann but it is said that he ran an okay campaign when he ran for governor of PA.

Who are some others?

[NoNothing]

1. Byron "Whizzer" White

Not a politician exactly, but a Supreme Court Justice.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Yes, Whizzer was a star (I don't think Gerald Ford was)

Granted, my knowledge of leather-helmet college football isn't extensive but my impression is that White was a big deal and his contemporary Ford merely a name in Michigan.

I didn't mention White because, as you note, he's not a politician. But I guess he does a place in the discussion of high-profile public service as a second career.

Or maybe not... college stars who never played in the pros don't really have two careers. I'm guessing White didn't because pro football was a dead-end back then.

(Shuler sucked in the NFL--too dumb to master a playbook--but he was a very high draft-pick. #rd, I think?)

[tularetom]

2. Heath Schuler is like my 4th cousin

and calling him a dunce is being extremely kind to him.

Actually, calling him a pro quarterback is quite a stretch.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. The Redskins decided the IQ testing at the combines was something to ignore.

They wasted the two highest picks they had in a generation on two players who were unable to master a pro playbook.

You can design a system to carry a talented dunce in college but the NFL is way too fast and complex.

Shuler was a total bust. And Desmond whats-his-name didn't seem able to figure which routes went with which plays. He turned out to be a good kick returner though, which is not intellectually demanding. (Won a superbowl MVP award as a kick returner)

[Auggie]

3. Steve Largent

The wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_athlete-politicians

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. Good one. Forgot about him.

[Oregone]

7. Arne Duncan

[classysassy]

8. J.C.Watts

was a star qb at okla,ut in congress.

[classysassy]

9. Football coaches

Tom Osborne was a great coach at nebraska,a poor congress critter(a republican),most of the top flight football and basketball coaches are republicans,Joe Pa,the recently retired coach at florida state.A Roid the fraud is a republican supporter,as is Ernie Banks,lost the little respect I had for both.

[fishwax]

10. many top football coaches are republicans, but that's definitely not true for basketball coaches

There are a handful of liberal/democratic football coaches, such as Barry Switzer ,who campaigned for Oklahoma's Democratic governor Brad Henry, and Dennis Green, who has also given a lot to Democratic campaigns.

In basketball, though, most of the top flight coaches are democrats and liberals. There are some exceptions (Coach K, Lute Olsen, I think Bobby Knight), but they are outnumbered (and outclassed) by the likes of Dean Smith, John Wooden, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, and more. Basketball, in general, tends to produce more liberal figures, while football tends to produce more conservative figures.

[fishwax]

11. Detroit's mayor Dave Bing is an NBA Hall-of-famer

[Awsi Dooger]

12. Jack Mildren

Best wishbone QB of all time and Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma in the early '90s. He would have been elected governor in 1994 other than the landslide climate of that particular cycle. Lost to Keating.

Unfortunately, Mildren died a couple of years ago, in his late 50s.

Let's see, otherwise I can think of Kevin Johnson, former NBA star and now mayor of Sacramento, albeit with several recent scandals. There's jackass Jim Ryun, the former great miler who served in the House as a Republican for about a decade until he was caught off guard and ousted in our wave election of 2006.

Alan Page of the Vikings is on the Minnesota Supreme Court. His name has surfaced frequently in terms of elective office, notably after Wellstone died in the 2002 plane crash and we needed a quick replacement candidate, a role Mondale took.

[Recovered Repug]

13. Gerald Ford was a football star back in the '30s.

I think he was drafted by the Packers, but never went pro.