THE MAG.COM PRESENTS:
ALL WORLD POWER RANKINGS

WHEN IT COMES TO THE BEST ATHLETES-TURNED-POLITICIANS, WE'LL TAKE BILL BRADLEY ANY DAY
[Ed's note: Not sure what All-World Power Rankings is? Please click here.]
Tomorrow is November 1st. Three days after that is (cue the violins) "the most important election of our lifetime." We don't dabble in politics, but we do dabble in the intersection of sports and politics. November means we're getting hyped for Gordon Smith (look it up!), so we decided to rank the best athletes turned politicians ever. Before we begin, one question: how many major college football coaches do you think could win an election for Governor of the state they coach in right now? Mack Brown vs. Rick Perry? It'd be unreal. ( Bonus: click through this!)
| TOP 5 | |||
| RANK (YESTERDAY) | WHAT | WHY | |
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1 (10) | BILL BRADLEY | Truth: we wrote a college essay on this guy's influence on us. Princeton in a Final Four? Amazing. Funny to think that this guy is probably good friends with Phil Jackson, too. |
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2 (35) | GEORGE WEAH | Simply put, he's a fairly amazing man. |
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3 (62) | JIM BUNNING | He was a legitimately good pitcher (he won 224 games). He gets thrown under the bus often for his role in the '64 Phillies collapse, but ya know what? The 2007 Mets made that less relevant! We wonder if he gave a congratulatory call to Charlie Manuel. |
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4 (9) | ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER | Totally put this here just to link this. |
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5 (42) | GERALD FORD | We weren't alive at the time, but apparently he was really good at Michigan. Cue the peanut gallery: "They could use him now!" Seriously, though, Chevy Chase just ruined this guy. |
| HONORABLE MENTION | |||
| RANK (YESTERDAY) | WHAT | WHY | |
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82 (139) | HOWIE MEEKER | Who? Read this. Amazingly, he dabbled in politics while playing. |
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103 (1,870) | STEVE LARGENT | For our money, he's among the top five receivers in NFL history. He got to Washington before Jim Zorn, but Zorn might last longer there if his Skins can play to potential these next few years. (We figure Albert Haynesworth has to help.) We have no idea how Largent lost that 2002 Governor race, though. ( Oh, ok! ) |
| RISING AND FALLING | ||
| MOVEMENT | WHAT | |
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| PETER BOULWARE (He lost, but we think he'll be back. And how cool is it to say "endorsed by Ray Lewis?") |
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| JACK KEMP (He let Al Gore get a joke in on him. Watch that link. ) |
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