Intelligence In Sports

[The Old LefHook]

Boxing requires a high level of concentration and the ability to read your opponent and develop instincts necessary to adapt. Intelligence is a tricky term. The Klitschko brothers are highly educated and were very successful boxers. By contrast, Mayweather is uneducated and borderline illiterate yet the most successful boxer in history. He had a high degree of intelligence in the ring, but not so much outside of the ring. Algieri has a Master's Degree, but proved to be a mediocre boxer. I think a lot of fighters have better instincts and survival skills than other athletes. Particularly defensive fighters, they tend to me more cerebral and methodical.

Football is a very strategic game and a QB needs to be able to read defenses, make adjustments on the fly, and remember plays. Are they exceptionally intelligent? Meh, Terry Bradshaw will never have a seat at the MENSA table, but he led the Steelers to 4 Super Bowl wins. I'd say coaching football probably takes the highest degree of intelligence of the major league sports.

I was was wondering at the likely IQs of NFL head coaches. You probably would not want anyone operating on your brain with an IQ less than 120. That is strictly a wild guess. It might be about the same for an NFL coach. It takes a very wide skill set to be the head man, in either sense, beyond just brains.

[Willie Pep 229]

I think the most difficult thing to be in modern sport is an NFL QB. They only need 32 of these guys and there never seems to more than 25 good ones in any given year.

Physical talent and intelligence wise it is the most demanding; you probably could replace the entire NBA with college and school yard players tomorrow and the talent pool would only slip a little. The NFL can't find 32 good QBs.