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Is anybody better at his or her profession than Justin Tucker? (1 Viewer)

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After watching Justin Tucker kick the game-winning 66 yard field goal as time expired - which I think essentially cements him as the greatest FG kicker ever (if not ever then certainly actively playing now) - it got me wondering whether there is somebody else more clearly atop his or her profession than Justin Tucker. In other words, is there somebody working in an identifiable profession that is significantly better than even the second best person? I mean, I have to assume that if salary and all other factors weren't relevant, every single NFL team would opt for Tucker as their kicker and I don't think it'd be close. In considering my profession I couldn't think of anybody that stands out like that and I struggled to come up with other professions as well. I considered maybe Elon Musk as an entrepeneur in the tech field, Fauci as an infectious disease doctor (though I'm confident such a nomination would be met with backlash), Dr. James Andrews as an orthopedic surgeon, etc. but aren't convinced they wouldn't even be as unaminous as Tucker. So, I'm wondering if anybody can think of others that could be more distinguishable to their respective professions than Justin Tucker. 

Sidenote: to be clear, the intent of this thread is merely to identify individuals who are incredibly good at their respective professions, not to somehow suggest certain professions are superior to others. For example, I'm not at all suggesting that Tucker is somehow better and/or more important to society than a person working in public safety, teaching, first responder, etc. Heck, it can probably be argued that some professions have zero societal value (e.g. professional poker player). But that's a totally different discussion and I'm simplytrying to identify individuals so incredibly good at their jobs/professions that they may exceed just how good Tucker is at his. 

 
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I think Mariano Rivera needs to be in the conversation.

Aside from being the leader in multiple career categories, he's the only guy to get 100% HOF votes.  There was no one better and simply got the job done when it mattered on the biggest stages.
While there's no doubt about Rivera as a closer, the 100% of the vote should've happened LONG before this.  You have a bunch of LOOK AT ME! sports writers who just have to make it about them.  

 
I think Mariano Rivera needs to be in the conversation.

Aside from being the leader in multiple career categories, he's the only guy to get 100% HOF votes.  There was no one better and simply got the job done when it mattered on the biggest stages.
I won't disagree on Mo, but the only reason Ken Griffey Jr. didn't also get 100% is because three jackasses decided to be contrarians and voted no.

 
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While there's no doubt about Rivera as a closer, the 100% of the vote should've happened LONG before this.  You have a bunch of LOOK AT ME! sports writers who just have to make it about them.  
Oh, no doubt.  I should have just left that part out. 

He was easily the best at his job in the history of baseball and was a game changer.  The article I linked is a good read, IMO.

 
I think Mariano Rivera needs to be in the conversation.

Aside from being the leader in multiple career categories, he's the only guy to get 100% HOF votes.  There was no one better and simply got the job done when it mattered on the biggest stages.
Yeah Mariano came to my mind when drafting the topic as being the best at being a reliever. Similar to Tucker, I assume every MLB team would have chosen him as their closer assuming no other factors to consider.

Honestly I was trying to stay away from sports though and open the topic up to any profession. 

 
Honestly I was trying to stay away from sports though and open the topic up to any profession. 
Are you just looking for people who are currently at the top of their profession or can we dip into recent history for some one off the mainstream like Mother Teresa? 

 
Adam Peaty, British swimmer

Dude owns the 6 fastest times in history at the 100m breaststroke and hasn't been beaten since 2014.  In a down and back race in the Olympics he won by half a body length.

 
Not to ruffle any feathers, but is Tucker THAT much better than other kickers? Sure, he's the league's most accurate kicker, making 90.57% of his career FG attempts. Harrison Butker is second at 90.51%. Put another way, if Butker makes his next kick and Tucker doesn't get an attempt, Butker would pass Tucker by a miniscule amount in terms of being the most accurate kicker of all time. To me, making a 66 yard kick doesn't change much. He's a very good kicker . . . by a very minimal amount.

If you wanted a football example of someone that might be tough to catch up to in terms of career accomplishments, after this upcoming weekend, Tom Brady will take over the career passing yardage lead. Ben Roethlisberger is the next closest active player almost 20,000 yards behind. TB12 also keeps extending his career record for passing TD, and the next closest active QB is Aaron Rodgers (173 behind). With another 268 completions, Brady will have the most completions as well. Then there's the 7 SB wins and 10 SB appearances. He may not have been the best QB in a season all that often, but his career numbers are going to end up off the charts. The game is different now than when Brady started, and passing totals are higher than they've ever been. So theoretically if a top producing QB wanted to play for 20 years (and still be effective all that time), someone could catch Brady in those career passing categories. But that's a long time from now.

 
Not to ruffle any feathers, but is Tucker THAT much better than other kickers? Sure, he's the league's most accurate kicker, making 90.57% of his career FG attempts. Harrison Butker is second at 90.51%. Put another way, if Butker makes his next kick and Tucker doesn't get an attempt, Butker would pass Tucker by a miniscule amount in terms of being the most accurate kicker of all time. To me, making a 66 yard kick doesn't change much. He's a very good kicker . . . by a very minimal amount.

If you wanted a football example of someone that might be tough to catch up to in terms of career accomplishments, after this upcoming weekend, Tom Brady will take over the career passing yardage lead. Ben Roethlisberger is the next closest active player almost 20,000 yards behind. TB12 also keeps extending his career record for passing TD, and the next closest active QB is Aaron Rodgers (173 behind). With another 268 completions, Brady will have the most completions as well. Then there's the 7 SB wins and 10 SB appearances. He may not have been the best QB in a season all that often, but his career numbers are going to end up off the charts. The game is different now than when Brady started, and passing totals are higher than they've ever been. So theoretically if a top producing QB wanted to play for 20 years (and still be effective all that time), someone could catch Brady in those career passing categories. But that's a long time from now.


Brady certainly has the career edge that may never be caught, but has he ever been that much significantly better than the #2 QB at any particular time?  That is, any team would undoubtedly take him over any other QB?  I think that is the question being asked, and I don't think that is as clear.

I think throughout the 2000-2010 period, most would have put him neck and neck with Peyton (Peyton has 5 NFL MVP awards to Brady's 3).  And then probably along with Brees and Rodgers over the last decade. 

 
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Brady certainly has the career edge that may never be caught, but has he ever been that much significantly better than the #2 QB at any particular time?  That is, any team would undoubtedly take him over any other QB?  I think that is the question being asked, and I don't think that is as clear.

I think throughout the 2000-2010 period, most would have put him neck and neck with Peyton (Peyton has 5 NFL MVP awards to Brady's 3).  And then probably along with Brees and Rodgers over the last decade. 
I suppose the debate in general revolves over "greatest over competitors at any moment in time" vs. "career greatness over an extended time compared to peers." I acknowledged that Brady was not often the best in any year, but over his career his accomplishments will be pretty impressive.

Using hockey as an example, Gretzky set all sorts of records. He may lose the career goal scoring mark to Ovechkin in a few years, but IMO the Great One was a dominant scorer that reshaped hockey. His record for career points will likely never be broken (he's 900+ points over the #2 player).

 
Chemerinsky probably cancels him out. 
If you want to count all sorts of potentially wrongly reasoned opinion into the equation, then yes.

If you want to have a logical debate with a professor, then Leff probably still wins.

 
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Not to ruffle any feathers, but is Tucker THAT much better than other kickers? Sure, he's the league's most accurate kicker, making 90.57% of his career FG attempts. Harrison Butker is second at 90.51%. Put another way, if Butker makes his next kick and Tucker doesn't get an attempt, Butker would pass Tucker by a miniscule amount in terms of being the most accurate kicker of all time. To me, making a 66 yard kick doesn't change much. He's a very good kicker . . . by a very minimal amount.
You're focusing on one factor of many. 

1. Tucker has been in the league five years longer with many more attempts. If Butker does what he's doing for 5 more years then we can consider him I think. 

2. Butker has missed significantly more extra points. 

3. Butker's longest kick is 58 yards. 

I agree that currently Butker is second best. But, I think he's still a very distant second best. 

 
You've debated both?
Lol. Touche. I'm just talking about the specifics of law in which they deal. Chereminsky is a great advocate of "getting to maybe" in Con Law and other debatable fields. Leff pretty much posits a postulate and doesn't deviate from it, even if it seems absolutist in nature.

 
the intent of this thread is merely to identify individuals who are incredibly good at their respective professions:

The guys from Pawn Stars are at the top of their profession - namely being Pawn Brokers

Dana White - Top MMA promoter

 
Lol. Touche. I'm just talking about the specifics of law in which they deal. Chereminsky is a great advocate of "getting to maybe" in Con Law and other debatable fields. Leff pretty much posits a postulate and doesn't deviate from it, even if it seems absolutist in nature.
I agree with those two characterizations. 

 
I would also nominate Jan Zlenzny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Železný

He would be like the Usain Bolt of javelin throw. He broke all sorts of records, medaled in 4 straight Olympics, and was untouchable at the height of his career. He's not an athlete that most folks outside of the Czech republic would know about, but he was just as dominate in his sport as Jordan, Gretsky, Pele, etc were in their sports. 

 
i dont like to brag but you aint ever met anyone better at taking stuff to the bank than me bromigo and you can damn well take that to the bank 
I dunno SWCer have you ever seen a Brinks truck?

 

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