Offside Chat Archives (2014-2021)

Paul Sanders5 said:Garbage. 😁

Looking back from '94 until now... 2006 was probably my favorite. No real reason why, just felt right.

But what about our 2002 run? That was truly the worst tournament ever.

Between those game times and our own national team—which wasn't much better than those irritating Koreans—it was just awful.

William Gomez5 said:Every single time I listen to Bill Burr try to defend Armstrong, it drives me nuts. Like, why didn't the people who kicked him out just give back all the money they made off him?

"why don't they return their yachts?" 🤣

Man, when it came to jumpers, Funaki was my icon

What a legend, what an absolute machine 🙏

That’s basically why Tim Duncan is my favorite basketball player

Oh, brilliant. I couldn't for the life of me remember his name—the guy was basically flying through the air on skis like nobody else.

Matthew Young35 said:A few corrections...

Formula 1... there is a massive collection of icons there. Prost, Gerard Piqué, Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell, that damn Michael Schumacher whom I can't stand and never have, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt... my apologies to anyone I missed. Ayrton Senna might be the biggest icon, but he isn't rightfully greater than the rest; at least three others were better drivers.

You forgot boxing... Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson.
In boxing, there truly are icons worth mentioning. I won't even get into the ones from before the seventies and eighties.

Chess... Bobby Fischer, José Raúl Capablanca, Mikhail Tal.
Then you have characters like that damn Ret with his insane openings (for that era). In chess, there are at least 20 icons.

Ski Jumping, Magnus Carlsen, Takeshi Koji.

One could find many more icons if they looked.

Garry Kasparov is my favorite jumper, though I suppose if you consider him alongside Magnus Carlsen, Jens Weimann belongs in that group too; he's perhaps just as talented as those two. 😁

dustyridge3 said:Wayne Gretzky's point totals and Jerry Rice's touchdown counts represent two records in American sports that I can almost guarantee won't be broken within my lifetime, provided the fundamental structure of these leagues remains unchanged.

To me, these are the two undisputed GOATs that simply cannot be compared to anyone else. Rice is a unique case because of his specific position, so I will limit my scope to him rather than the entire sport, but then again, there isn't a single position in the NFL where the gap between number one and number two is even remotely this massive.

Yeah, good topic. I’d say Rice’s record is theoretically possible—it could happen if the leagues keep moving in that direction, just adding more... but Gretzky’s? No chance.🙏 Still, both are GOATs of a different caliber.

I’d also argue Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game is practically unbreakable, especially now that teams play much smarter. What’s definitely untouchable, though, is that season where Wilt averaged over 48 minutes per game🤣 along with all his rebounding records. Bill Russell’s eight straight titles are also out of reach in today's era with the way cap space works. And Pelé’s 1,300 career goals are in that same tier outside of the States...

Jessica Gonzalez said:Team Sports - Michael Jordan

Individual Sports - Lance Armstrong (I guess Usain Bolt is his only real competition)

If we're being honest, Carl Lewis is a much bigger deal than Usain Bolt when you look at the whole picture. It wasn't just about matching records in one discipline; he shattered the long jump record and dominated more events than Bolt ever did. Plus, he had incredible longevity, and unlike others, he never faced those doping allegations.

I’ll never forget that competition—I think it was a World Championship—where Lewis smashed a world record in the long jump that had stood for over twenty years. Then Mike Powell steps up and breaks it. Then Lewis goes back and breaks it again, only for Powell to take it back one last time to win.
By then, Lewis was already getting a bit older.
Look, maybe I'm slightly off on the exact sequence of the record breaks, but I know for a fact those two were trading world records at the very same meet.
At the end of the day, Carl Lewis is undoubtedly a far greater track and field icon than Ben Johnson.

Susan Kim2 said:I don't know why, but this reminds me of that legendary rant.

🙏🙏

The second he drops that "I don't have problems with the murder" line, everything just clicks.🙏

Matthew Young35 said:If we're being honest, Carl Lewis is a much bigger deal than Usain Bolt when you look at the whole picture. It wasn't just about matching records in one discipline; he shattered the long jump record and dominated more events than Bolt ever did. Plus, he had incredible longevity, and unlike others, he never faced those doping allegations.

I’ll never forget that competition—I think it was a World Championship—where Lewis smashed a world record in the long jump that had stood for over twenty years. Then Mike Powell steps up and breaks it. Then Lewis goes back and breaks it again, only for Powell to take it back one last time to win.
By then, Lewis was already getting a bit older.
Look, maybe I'm slightly off on the exact sequence of the record breaks, but I know for a fact those two were trading world records at the very same meet.
At the end of the day, Carl Lewis is undoubtedly a far greater track and field icon than Ben Johnson.

🤣 🤣

I mean, O.J. wasn't proven to have killed his wife, and Jeffrey Epstein wasn't proven to have been murdered. Am I playing this game right?

shadowmarlin22 said:Yeah, good topic. I’d say Rice’s record is theoretically possible—it could happen if the leagues keep moving in that direction, just adding more... but Gretzky’s? No chance.🙏 Still, both are GOATs of a different caliber.

I’d also argue Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game is practically unbreakable, especially now that teams play much smarter. What’s definitely untouchable, though, is that season where Wilt averaged over 48 minutes per game🤣 along with all his rebounding records. Bill Russell’s eight straight titles are also out of reach in today's era with the way cap space works. And Pelé’s 1,300 career goals are in that same tier outside of the States...

OJ rushing for 2,000 yards in just 14 games? I don't think anyone is ever doing that again.

I guess Lance Armstrong is one of those sports icons where even having a hundred kilos of doping in his system can't erase what he actually achieved. The guy basically beat death and then grabbed seven consecutive Tours, bringing millions of people along for the ride. As far as his personality goes, it’s pretty clear he’s just an arrogant jerk, but as an athlete, he was an unprecedented Miracle. Maybe with enough time, things will settle back into a normal perspective, because history won't just forget him. That's just how this sport works; everyone gets caught up in it.

When discussing true icons, I suppose very few groups can truly be compared to the legendary Japanese ski jumping team. You have figures like Noriaki Kasai, Masahiko Harada, Takanobu Okabe, Jiniya Nishikata, and then, after a short while, the arrival of the great Kazuyoshi Funaki 🤣

Hey everyone, we completely overlooked Sergey Bubka.
The guy broke his own world record seven hundred times over.

Jessica Gonzalez said:I guess Lance Armstrong is one of those sports icons where even having a hundred kilos of doping in his system can't erase what he actually achieved. The guy basically beat death and then grabbed seven consecutive Tours, bringing millions of people along for the ride. As far as his personality goes, it’s pretty clear he’s just an arrogant jerk, but as an athlete, he was an unprecedented Miracle. Maybe with enough time, things will settle back into a normal perspective, because history won't just forget him. That's just how this sport works; everyone gets caught up in it.

🤣 🤣

It’s honestly tough to put into words how you managed to claim someone was the greatest basketball player ever at age 21 and then immediately surpass that on the very same day, but hey, you did it! Congrats, I guess. But seriously, he is never going to be seen as a respected athlete again. Never.

Even if you gave him back everything he lost, Lance Armstrong still wouldn't be considered the greatest in his sport.

Honestly, only one guy has ever had a legendary name, and that’s Hidehar Miyahira

Man, it just sounds so smooth when you say it out loud🙏

He was always rocking those helmets that looked straight out of a Hannibal Lecter movie🙏

Michael Flores8 said:When discussing true icons, I suppose very few groups can truly be compared to the legendary Japanese ski jumping team. You have figures like Noriaki Kasai, Masahiko Harada, Takanobu Okabe, Jiniya Nishikata, and then, after a short while, the arrival of the great Kazuyoshi Funaki 🤣

Finland.
☕
They all became world champions at sixteen, turned into chronic alcoholics, and retired by eighteen.

Pekka Nikola

Yeah, I agree, Kazuyoshi Funaki. He might not be the greatest athlete of all time, but his performances at his peak were definitely some of the most beautiful moments in sports history. It was just pure magic—the skis, the snow, the wind, and those intense breaths during those 25 seconds.

Matthew Young35 said:Finland.
☕
They all became world champions at sixteen, turned into chronic alcoholics, and retired by eighteen.

True, very true 🤣
Nikkinen, Ari Pekka, Risto Laakkonen, and Puikkonen 😁
Later on, Nieminen and the others arrived.

William Gomez5 said:Honestly, only one guy has ever had a legendary name, and that’s Hidehar Miyahira

Man, it just sounds so smooth when you say it out loud🙏

He was always rocking those helmets that looked straight out of a Hannibal Lecter movie🙏

Prika, Fernando San Emeterio.

Jessica Gonzalez said:Yeah, I agree, Kazuyoshi Funaki. He might not be the greatest athlete of all time, but his performances at his peak were definitely some of the most beautiful moments in sports history. It was just pure magic—the skis, the snow, the wind, and those intense breaths during those 25 seconds.

He wasn't even close to Noriaki Kasai.
That guy used to take flight and fight for his life out there; every single jump he made seemed to land twenty meters past everyone else. If he wasn't taking home the gold, it was strictly because of technical judging, not because he lacked the distance.