People, bands, artists, athletes, authors, politicians... Name people who walked away too early.

[jobycom]

What could the Beatles have done if they'd stayed together? What else could J D Salinger have accomplished?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Sandy Kofax, Gary Larson....

....umm, there are others.

[jobycom]

3. Well of course there are others, that's what I'm asking!

:eyes:

[sammythecat]

9. Yes, Gary Larson

I loved his stuff

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. It was almost too late for Koufax

His arthritic left arm might've been crippled had he not retired at 30.

[flvegan]

2. Chris Reid and Chris Martin

Beatles and Salinger? Pfft.

[jobycom]

4. God, who ever thought that franchise would end?

Not me. :cry:

[Rambis]

5. Barry Sanders

Lions running back

[TZ]

11. Thats who I thought of...n/t

[jobycom]

14. Funny, I thought of him when I made the thread, and had to look back

because I thought I had posted him.

Definitely a loss, but he was such a balanced person I think he knew what was best for him. Some people quit out of weakness, but I didn't get that impression with him.

[MrCoffee]

6. Budd Dwyer

[Pool Hall Ace]

13. I was just thinking about this guy the other day.

"Pop the top on a Budd."

[rockymountaindem]

33. Now that's just wrong

In a... weird kind of way.

[jobycom]

20. I think his manner of walking away is the only reason most people know him.

[MorningGlow]

7. Douglas Adams

I would have liked to see him meld his goofiness with more mature themes in his novels. 'Course, that whole death thing sure put a monkey wrench in it... :cry:

[jobycom]

16. He was working on the movie when he died.

I've always wondered if it would have turned out better if he had lived. I actually really like the film--I think it has a lot of the quirkiness and understated humor (typical of the Brits) of his books, but maybe he would have given it that little extra edge.

[sammythecat]

8. Jim Brown

Could have had at least 2 more fantastic years.

[blueraven95]

10. Bill Watterson

hands down.

[Neoma]

12. Kurt Cobain.

[jobycom]

15. Yeah, when he quit, he really quit.

That was a sad time. I'm convinced he was the last great thing to happen to rock music. There have been some great acts since him, but he was the last one to really give it a fresh direction and a new resurgence. Vastly underrated.

[mitchum]

27. He was the last rock star...

a rock music performer who passionately believed in their work (and it came through in their work) who reached the mass audience
There are still people who do passionate work
and there are people who reach a mass audience
but there are none who posssess the classic combination

[Doc_Technical]

17. Jimi Hendrix, Jaco Pastorius, Felix Pappalardi,

Harry Chapin, Tommy Bolan, Brian Jones.

[jobycom]

21. Dying young, absent of suicide, is not walking away.

[charlie and algernon]

18. Steve Young

Betcha the Niners would have had a 6th superbowl win

[jobycom]

22. He'd have won the Super Bowl for someone.

Maybe the other team, when he threw to the wrong uniform in his concussion-induced haze.

Like Troy Aikman, I think they were forced into retirement for their own good.

[charlie and algernon]

23. yeah, that whole situation sucks

Him or Aikman would've been the ones breaking all of Marino's records and not Favre. You give someone with Young's passer rating the longetivty of Favre and they'd smash a TON of records.

[jobycom]

35. Maybe Young, but not Aikman. Favre had the best chance.

Young had receivers, and he was a god improv QB. Aikman was a real system QB. He was the most accurate passer I've ever seen, still, and he was good at reading three and four routes deep, but when his receivers were covered up he couldn't improv. Part of that was the offensive scheme around him, that didn't really give much leeway to the receivers.

Young, after that great season he had, could do it all. Before that Super Bowl year, he was a choker under pressure, but he got something straight in his head, and he was unflapable after that. I remember that second-to-last game he played, against the Saints, when he just kept getting clobbered. I still think that game killed his career. The next game was when he went down for the last time, but that hit wasn't as hard as the last two hits against the Saints. That's what killed him.

Brett Favre I still say is the best QB of all time. I give Montana the edge as the greatest, because he always had the team to get it done, but no one could make a team better than Favre. He had teams in the 90s that couldn't have won a single game with a different QB. He could read the defense, but more than that he just wouldn't give up on a play. When he actually had receivers who could catch the ball, he looked good. When he had lousy receivers, he wound up forcing passes, but that's because he was still trying to win the game. Put Aikman or Montana on those teams, and they look pathetic. Young had a lot of Favre's improv, so he may have done well, too. But Favre gets blamed for all those interceptions by people who didn't watch him much. He threw them because there was nothing else happening. Ego-driven QBs would throw the ball away or dump off to a tight end to make their ratings look better, but Favre would still try to win the game. Put him on a decent team, and he'd have broken every record. Young, Elway, Unitas, were all like that, but I think Favre was the best at it.

Easy to prove, too. Holmgren was never as effective without Favre. The Packers went from 13-3 to a losing record when Favre left, and the Jets signed Favre and went from the cellar to one of the best records in the NFL until Favre ripped his arm muscles out at the end of the season. He was way under-rated.

Has nothing to do with me growing up with Favre, either. :)

[nuxvomica]

24. Harper Lee

What a beautiful writing style and only one book.

[mitchum]

25. Ralph Ellison

[RFKHumphreyObama]

26. JFK and RFK

They didn't "walk away" from things but the world would likely have been a much better place if both of them had lived

[jobycom]

36. They didn't walk away.

[bif]

28. John Belushi

[Bucky]

29. Strom Thurmond

Strom, Jr, that is. Pops made all the effort of hanging on till the kid was 30 and the goofball goes and takes a lucrative lobbyist job intead of sliding into an all but certain lifetime appointment to the US Senate. Ungrateful brat.

[mitchum]

32. I was once working in a copy shop in SC and a resume came across the counter...

I happened to look at the job experience listed and noticed that NONE of the "jobs" were real jobs.
Then I looked at the top of the resume and saw the name. Yes, of course, it belonged to Strom Jr.
So I proceeded to entertain everyone for the next 10 minutes with a very good vocal impersonation of his fucking father- "we cain't be mixin' up the white paper and the colored paper" and such.
Everyone but Jr was highly amused. Fuck him.

[dysfunctional press]

30. most of them actually stick around way too long...

even michael jordan didn't realize when it was really time to go...

[rockymountaindem]

34. He did. He just came back a couple of times afterwards n/t

[blue_onyx]

31. Sometimes it's best to walk away early

Sticking around too long is sometimes worse than hanging it up too early. So many TV shows, for example, stick around a few seasons too many seasons (Roseanne).