First Family of Sports

Scott: In the spirit of Kanye West designating himself as the “King of Pop” now that Michael Jackson has past, I would like to keep with the trend of designating fictional positions to people who may or may not deserve them. We already have two very worthy members inducted into “The Rebuilding Project Hall of Fame”, now it is time to provide some leadership to the selection process.

During a recent interview Shaq mentioned how is teenage son is going to be the second coming of Dwight Howard. As crazy as that sounds, there is a fairly recognizable trend of either sons or younger brothers following in their elder family member’s footsteps. This got me thinking though, who is the first family of sports all-time? They could eventually be elevated to the chairmen of the board of the TRB HOF and sit at the head of the table during all future inductee meetings.

Is it the Barry family of the NBA with Hall of Famer Rick Barry and his sons Jon, Brent, Drew and Scooter? All of them have professional experience with three members of the family being first round draft picks. Check this out for more stats.

Is it the Manning family of the NFL with father Archie Manning and sons Eli and Peyton? While Archie struggled through a career mainly with the New Orleans Saints, Eli and Peyton each have won Super Bowls (Eli won the year after Peyton). Both Eli and Peyton were the top overall picks in the NFL draft and Peyton is a sure-fire Hall of Famer.

Is it the Griffey family of MLB with Ken Sr. and son Ken Jr.? Jr has had an injury ravaged, but still a Hall of Fame caliber career (and may remain as the only superstar in baseball that no one suspected of steroids...for better or worse) and Sr. had his high points too, winning an MVP and being inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

Here is a list of some other families who have had stellar careers or are currently enjoying much professional success:

Alou: Moises, Felipe, Matty, Jesus
Barber: Tiki, Ronde
Bonds: Bobby, Barry
Boone: Bob, Bret, Aaron
Curry: Dell, Stephen, Seth
Earnhart: Dale Sr, Dale Jr
Federov: Sergei, Fedor
Fielder: Cecil, Prince
Gwynn: Tony Sr, Tony Jr.
Hull: Bobby, Brett
Long: Howie, Chris
Matthews: Bruce, Clay
Molina: Benji, Yadir, another one…
Payton: Walter, Jarrett
Ripken: Sr, Jr, Billy
Simms: Phil, Chris
Sutter: Brian, Daryl, Duane, Rich, Ron and Brent
Upton Family: BJ, Justin
Vick: Michael, Marcus, Aaron Brooks (cousin)
Winslow: Kellen Sr., Kellen Jr.
Wilkins: Dominique, Gerald

What about a scenario where you could pick your siblings or parents based on their last name? For example:

Larry Johnson (NFL – Kansas City), Larry Johnson (Ex NBA – New York/Charlotte), Magic Johnson, Joe Johnson (NBA – Atlanta), Chad Johnson (Ochocinco), Derrick Johnson (NFL – Kansas City), Andre Johnson (NFL – Houston), Calvin Johnson (NFL – Detroit), Randy Johnson (MLB – San Francisco).

Steve Smith (NFL – Carolina), Emmit Smith, Joe Smith (NBA – Cleveland), Andre Smith (NFL – Bengals), Steve Smith (Ex NBA – Atlanta), Alex Smith (NFL – San Francisco), Josh Smith (NBA – Atlanta).

Ted Williams (MLB – Boston), Deron Williams (NBA – Utah), Deangelo Williams (NFL – Carolina), Mario Williams (NFL – Houston), Bernie Williams (MLB – New York Yankees).

Which family possesses the greatest namesake ever? Just a something to ponder….