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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 3755447, member: 1131"] I would like to suggest that you sharpen up the question a bit. Here is how I would do it (certainly not the only way): First, limit the scope to the four major professional sports: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Second, ask the question about the requirements of a position (e.g., point guard in basketball, center fielder in baseball). Third, to allow for the fact that someone playing almost every position in every sport benefits from great athleticism, focus on positions which demand extreme athleticism simply to play the position. For example, a forward in basketball certainly benefits from great athleticism (e.g., Michael Jordan or Lebron James), but someone can be an excellent player at that position without being a world-class athlete (e.g., Larry Bird). With those three restrictions, I would propose that the position in any of the four major sports that has the highest entry requirements to play it competently is the cornerback position in football. A cornerback needs Olympic-level speed, as does a wide receiver, but the receiver runs a pattern and knows where he is going, while the CB needs to stay attached to the WR no matter where he goes. That means he needs great reflexes and the ability to turn on a dime -- attributes that the WR really does not require. A safety plays further behind the line of scrimmage than a CB and has more time to read the play and get in position to make the tackle, so he can be a step slower than the CB or the WR and still do his job effectively. A safety probably requires more cognitive skill than a CB to read the play and recognize where the pass is going to go, and a quarterback certainly requires more cognitive skill than either the CB or the safety. But for pure athleticism (speed, agility, quickness, leaping ability to contest a reception by a tall receiver), I can't think of any position that is more demanding than that of the NFL cornerback. [/QUOTE]

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