(09-22-2020 09:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(09-21-2020 10:10 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Do high school kids even know who Deion is? He hasn't played football since they were in diapers.

I would bet that Deion Sanders name-recognition among high schoolers is very high. He's just a very well known famous ex-football player. It's like asking if high schoolers know who Allen Iverson is. The answer would be a clear "yes" IMO.

I just remember that when I was in junior high, I had no idea who OJ Simpson was when the TV switched away from a Bulls game to the video of him in a white Bronco.

Until you get older, your sports consciousness doesn't go back that far for fast-changing sports like football and basketball (baseball is different because stats from the 1920s can still be reasonably compared to today's players).

As a high schooler, the farthest back my sports consciousness went was Walter Peyton, Dr. J, and Kareem. I had heard of some players older than them, but I thought of those three as the first real stars in their sports. And they were still playing when I entered grade school.