Running off at the typewriter. …
I got to thinking about this the other day and I wanted to present the question to you:
Who do you think is the greatest professional athlete in Orlando sports history?
Before you answer, here are the ground rules:
The athlete has to have spent at least a portion of his/her competitive career playing for an Orlando team or (in the case of solo sports such as golf, tennis, NASCAR, etc.) the athlete has to have resided full-time in Orlando while playing their respective individual sport.
Most people would probably vote for Shaq or Tiger Woods as the greatest athlete in Orlando history, but I disagree. Some might even say Arnold Palmer, but he was well past his prime when he made Orlando his home (although Arnie did win a couple of PGA Tour events after he moved to Bay Hill). And if we were picking an athlete who had the greatest impact in the community, Arnie would win in a landslide.
Without further adieu, here’s my Super Seven list (in reverse order) of Orlando’s greatest pro athletes: (7) Dwight Howard. (6) Kaka. (5) Shaq. (4) Arnold Palmer. (3) Annika Sorenstam. (2) Tiger Woods and (1) Marta.
You heard me, Marta.
While the Orlando Pride of the NWSL don’t have the marquee value and fan interest of the NBA or the PGA Tour, the question is who is the greatest professional athlete in Orlando history; not who is the greatest professional athlete in a marquee sport in Orlando history.
Marta is the only one on the Super Seven list who is universally considered the greatest athlete in her sport’s history (sorry, Tiger, Jack has three more majors than you do.) Not only is Marta the six-time FIFA World Player of the Year (more than any player in history — male or female), she helped lead the Pride to Orlando’s first major league sports title last year. And, at 39 years old, she just came off the bench last weekend and scored two goals — including the equalizer in stoppage time — to lead her native Brazil to a ninth Copa America women’s title.
So go ahead and make your case for Tiger, Shaq, Arnie or Annika, but if we’re talking GOATs in Central Florida, I’m rolling with Marta — the Pride of Orlando and the Queen of the Pitch. …
Short stuff: Many residents at Orlando’s Orange Tree Golf Club were rooting hard last weekend for Cameron Young, who finally got his first PGA Tour victory Sunday at the Wyndham Championship after seven runner-up finishes. While Young’s primary residence during his youth was Scarborough, New York, he and his family would regularly spend winters in Florida, where Cam honed his golf skills. During this time, the Youngs resided at Orange Tree, where Young won the club championship as a 13-year-old. The club champion at Orange Tree gets a very special parking space near the clubhouse and, after Young won the championship, he would park his bicycle in that coveted parking spot. I’m just guessing, but I’ll bet that parking spot at Orange Tree has been waiting for Cam to roll back in — this time in a BMW X-7 SUV. …
One week Teddy Bridgewater gets suspended as the high school football coach at Miami Northwestern and a couple weeks later he gets picked up as the potential back up quarterback of the Tampa Bay Bucs. I guess the Bucs figured, “Hey, if he can hook up high school kids, maybe he can hook up with Mike Evans!” … Meanwhile, former UF quarterback Kyle Trask, the Bucs perennial backup quarterback who is entering his fifth year in the NFL without having ever started a game, is getting ready to earn his PhD in Clipboard Management. … Hey, Lake Mary Little Leaguers, don’t hang your heads. You didn’t make it back to the Little League Baseball World Series, but you still made an entire region proud of you. What you accomplished is something most kids only dream of. Hold those heads high —champions always do. … I don’t mind ESPN acquiring the NFL Network, but the four-letter network now also owns the NFL’s popular RedZone Channel, which is how many of us consume the NFL on Sundays .Do we really need Stephen A. Smith popping onto the screen every time a touchdown is scored just so he can scream, “THIS DEFENSE IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!” …
The Cleveland Browns are so pathetic that 40-Year-Old Slow, er, Joe Flacco might be their best option as a winning quarterback this season. … Former NFL running back LeShon Johnson got convicted earlier this week for his role in a large-scale dogfighting operation in which a record 190 dogs were seized during a police raid of Johnson’s dog farm. Here’s hoping those dogs get rehabilitated and Johnson gets a long time behind bars to think about how the leash is now on him — and justice is holding the other end. … Personally, I’m ecstatic that Donald Trump has reinstituted the Presidential Physical Fitness Test for American school children. Childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country and kids need to quit exercising their thumbs on social media and start exercising their bodies on the playground. Sorry, but TikTok dances don’t count as cardio in my book. …
Did you see where former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia? Dooley, the son of legendary University of Georgia coach Vince Dooley, was widely considered a failure at Tennessee, where he was fired with a 15-21 record after three seasons. I hate to say it, but I fear that Dooley’s political platform will be much like his coaching strategies — confusing, ineffective and guaranteed to lose in November. … Legendary Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy turned 100 a few days ago. Hey, Marv may have lost four consecutive Super Bowls, but he’s undefeated against Father Time. … A moment of silence, please, Loni Anderson has just gone to That Big Struggling Radio Station In the Sky. …
Last word: With Friday being International Beer Day, let us never forget the famous words of Ben Franklin: “Beer is proof that God wants us to be happy.”
Originally Published: August 7, 2025 at 11:01 AM EDT