100 Most Likable American Athletes (Preview)

With the recent retirements of Derek Jeter and Champ Bailey, America has lost two of its most likable athletes. In fact, it was an easy argument to make that Derek Jeter was the most likable athlete in the country. Measuring likability by how much the public at large likes somebody it is easy to see how truly likable they were. Everyone loves Derek Jeter and Champ Bailey. Absolutely everyone does/did. There is nothing to not like about them. Sure Derek got the majority of the love during his farewell tour, but don't sell Champ short. He was loved even when he lost a step and was nowhere near the player he once was. I loved these two athletes and even had a Champ Bailey jersey growing up. The void these two left leaving us as two of America's most beloved athletes inspired this list. I was looking for 100 athletes that America LOVES. 100 guys with qualities similar to Champ Bailey and Derek Jeter.

Smiles don't hurt an athletes likability, but that isn't what we are measuring with this list. I was looking for the 100 most likable American Athletes today. Here were the rules I established for my list. Each rule is centered and bold with a description underneath.

Gender and sport do not matter just taking 100 Active Athletes.

To truly branch out this list as much as possible I thought it was important to include both genders in the selection process. Some female athletes are incredibly likable and it is important to showcase as many good people as possible. Likewise sport didn't matter to me on this list because we are just going on how likable a person is. That being said, football, baseball, and basketball players are much better known in this country and I wanted to create at list that was not just indicative of those three sports. I also wanted athletes of sports that are not as big in America if the athletes themselves are America. These types of lists are fun and entertaining. However, in making this list the Fab 5 Gymnasts from the 2012 Olympics automatically popped in my list. Unfortunately, for two of those athletes, Jordyn Wieber, and Aly Raisman, they are not currently competing. Because they are no longer competing, those two are ineligible for this list. They are still incredibly likable and beloved by all Americans, but they will not be included on this particular list.

The Athlete must have been born in one of the 50 states.

The biggest rule in determining that the athlete be on a list of American Athletes is that they are an American citizen. That part of the equation was easy. In doing research for this factor, I was surprised by quite a few being born outside of this country and not citizens. The biggest surprise in this group was that Joey Votto was Canadian. I am not sure why, but I could have sworn that he was an All-American guy. 

There was another issue though. If I kept everybody that was an American citizen, I would have to check on who obtained citizenship and who was born in a US territory. While it was easy to find a guy like Tim Duncan who was born in the Virgin Islands, there are quite a few that were born in Puerto Rico, or Guam that would be harder to add to the list. The fact that Puerto Rico competes by itself in international competition makes this more difficult. Mainly because of Puerto Rico, I decided to add the state rule. This state rule disqualifies Duncan from the list because as stated he was born in the US Virgin Islands. That is quite unfortunate for Duncan because he has a very strong case for being the #1 most liked athlete in this country. He will have to do with this quick mention. It is worth noting that Duncan appeared in a comic book as pictured below.

Each sport is capped at 20 representatives.

This list could have easily be done with just three sports, but I wanted to include the other sports. Before I started that, I limited myself to 20 athletes from basketball, baseball, and football. This helped to keep those sports down. I only used the full 20 for baseball and football though as it was easier to leave a few basketball guys off the list.

This list is not about popularity, but overall likability.

This list is 100% about liability and not about popularity. If you want popularity, look at the all-star voting ballots or jersey sales. It is about likability here. Meaning if you sampled a random group, would they more than likely have a favorable impression of that individual. While Lebron James and Peyton Manning are the most popular players in their sports, they are also two of the most polarizing. Lebron is polarizing in that you either love him or hate him, but Manning in a different way. With Manning it seems you either love him or hate him, but you get pushed into a Manning v. Brady v. Rodgers argument sometimes and if you favor one you dislike the other. However, while Manning fans don't like Brady and Brady fans don't like Manning, it seems they all still pretty much like Rodgers and Brees. That would make Brees and Rodgers more likable than Manning or Brady. There are too many Manning haters for him to be on this list.

Likability for everyone as a whole and not just me.

While I have my own opinions of who is likable and who isn't, I tried to keep those out of here as much as possible. I for instance believe that Jameis Winston is a top 5 athlete in factors that you should like, but realize the majority of the country hates him. It is unfounded and the Winston hate makes me like the guy more, but for some reason he isn't a likable guy to the masses. Likewise, I like Robert Andino, but realize most have no idea who he is. It has to be a guy that the majority of people like in order for them to make this list. So while Winston and others are likable to many including myself, they do not meet the criteria for this countdown. No matter how much good some people do and how many times they help others, some are just marked as unlikable.

College athletes are eligible.

Current college athletes, while not as likely to make this list, are eligible for inclusion.

No known users of performance enhancing drugs.

This one is pretty obvious as most do not enjoy cheaters.

No people most think are a bust or done.

This category might as well be the Derrick Rose and Sam Bradford category. Those are the two I think of in this category. While most would love to see these guys succeed and most like these guys, I think we can all admit it is unlikely they will ever get to 100%. Each of these athletes can be considered to be finished at least as far as making a major impact. Although we all hope we are wrong. I especially feel this way about Bradford who is a personal favorite of mine. There are not many guys that are better as a person than Sam Bradford. That guy is awesome and I really hope he can push through it and persevere.

On to the countdown!

-Noland