Hardest Professional Sports Title to Win

**DuDDy** · 05-19-10, 12:12 AM

Just making this clear right now that this is only regarding the major 4 professional sports in the US. And seeing as how it is Championship season I was curious as to what everyone else at TTP thought.

With that being said here's what I think for each sport, ranked from hardest to easiest.

To me there is only 1 choice for this. Its the Stanley Cup hands down. No other playoff is harder than the Stanly Cup Playoffs. You are playing every other night for a month straight including travel after the second and fourth games then after every game after that. Your body is literally beaten to hell for 2 months straight with only a few days of recovery if your lucky enough to win your series early enough. On top of this, you already played a regular season that is a grueling 80 plus games. Not to mention every team is a threat to win it every year. There is no other trophy that is harder to get than the Stanley Cup.

The only other case that would have a shot at giving the Stanley Cup a run for the money is the World Series. And this is only because the regular season is such a grind to get to the playoffs that I think a lot of players are tired and burnt out by the time playoffs come, which makes focusing and playing each game tougher and tougher.

The Superbowl is next because after all football is a violent sport, but not as much as hockey. The game is tough and physical and demanding, but with 2 weeks to prepare you are at 100% and have thought of pretty much every scenario to play out in the game. This alone puts football at the bottom half of the list.

This at last comes to the NBA Championship. Its by far and away the easiest one to win. The league has no defense and year in and year out 99% of the time the higher seed wins the first and second round. Also in a given year there are only maybe 4 or 5 teams that are threats to win it which pretty much makes the other 11 or 12 teams speed bumps on the way for these teams to get to the finals. OH and you done play near as often as hockey does. Once every other night or something like that.

So post up and lets see what you all think.

**DOMINATOR** · 05-19-10, 12:22 AM

your post is good for what sport is hardest to play year round. but for just winning a title i'd go with baseball because there is so much luck involved.
football i mean really they get like a month to prepare for 1 game?
NBA easiest... i hate how much rest they give them between games.

**Fovezer** · 05-19-10, 12:27 AM

I think it's the World Series, and it's not even close. To even make it into the playoffs, you have to either win your division or have the best record excluding the division winners for the Wild Card. This is after a 162 game season.

The Stanley Cup is second. It's alot easier to get in the playoffs, but once you do, it seems like seeding means nothing. One seeds lose to eight seeds all the time. Look at these playoffs, 1 vs 2 in the West and 7 vs 8 in the East.

The NBA and NFL are big jokes, and I really could care less about them.

**reject_wolf** · 05-19-10, 12:29 AM

I'll give it to the Super Bowl. There is a reason why football players always seem to be the most beat of of all professional athletes. I still like the Stanley Cup playoffs way more though.

But if I had to give the toughest trophy to win in sports it would be the Memorial Cup. 5 rounds of playoffs and a 60 games season while between the ages of 15 to 21, while going to school and traveling by bus across Canada (within your league) to play the games has got to be hard.

**xis** · 05-19-10, 01:00 AM

Stanley Cup no doubt. For all the reasons Duddy explained.

I'm bias since I'm hardcore hockey but the parody in the NHL is much bigger than any other pro sport.
Any team that gets in has a chance to win the cup. You can buy the Stanley Cup, not anymore anyway.

In basketball, football and Baseball the teams with the highest pay rolls seem to do well most often.

**Red_Lizard2** · 05-19-10, 01:15 AM

don't care if its the top 4 in the US, nothing is harder then the Champions League title imo. Hell most of the games are played in between league matches so you don't get much rest, especially if its a smaller squad.

Using hockey as an example of what it would be like:

SUN: Regular Season Game
MON: Off
TUES: Off
WED: Cup Game
THURS: Off
FRI: Off
SAT (or Sun): Regular Season Game
SUN (or Sat): Off
MON: off
TUES: off
WED: Cup Game

etc. etc.

Not to mention you might have to go from Madrid to Moscow, to Valencia, to Madrid, to Barcelona, to London, and so on.

**reject_wolf** · 05-19-10, 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by Red_Lizard2

don't care if its the top 4 in the US, nothing is harder then the Champions League title imo. Hell most of the games are played in between league matches so you don't get much rest, especially if its a smaller squad.

Using hockey as an example of what it would be like:

SUN: Regular Season Game
MON: Off
TUES: Off
WED: Cup Game
THURS: Off
FRI: Off
SAT (or Sun): Regular Season Game
SUN (or Sat): Off
MON: off
TUES: off
WED: Cup Game

etc. etc.

Not to mention you might have to go from Madrid to Moscow, to Valencia, to Madrid, to Barcelona, to London, and so on.

North American sports have the same time zone problems to deal with and in their home leagues they play a short ass season. Then there is the fact that soccer has some of the most ridiculous salaries of all time so the same old teams compete every year.

Oh and it is soccer.

**Xavsnipe** · 05-19-10, 01:48 AM

yea, sorry to crash your party...

Soccer is

**DuDDy** · 05-19-10, 01:52 AM

I agree with you guys that the Champions League is hard to win, but this is why the discussion is limited to the 4 sports in question. Its because they are very easy to follow and a lot of the people here are very familiar with them. So lets please leave discussion to the sports in question.

**ATXPLEX** · 05-19-10, 04:29 AM

My first inclination was football all the way. This was because the NFL playoffs are sudden death. All things being equal, you have more chances to win a seven game series. NFL players play less than 25 games a season including the preseason.

Duddy, your argument for Hockey almost convinced me. I know hockey must be tough. 7 game series take their toll on the body.

I have only been to one hockey game in my life. I went to the dallas stars minor league affiliate in Cedar Park, Texas. I was brought to tears laughing twice. There was 3 fights, and each fight was incredibly hilarious. They gave us these Stars "terrible towels." I was waving it in the air, beer in one hand, laughing so hard i was crying. There was this dude who was like an enforcer or something who was real tall and was involved in 2 of the 3 fights. It was pretty high scoring too. The players weren't that good, which made the fights even funnier. It was a great time.