A recent ESPN project named the 100 most famous current professional athletes based on endorsements, social media presence and Google searches.
So who made the cut? Well …
• Nobody from Minnesota. That's right, out of the most 100 famous professional athletes in the world right now, none plays for Minnesota's pro sports teams.
• If you dig deeper into the list, though, it's not really too surprising that nobody local is on there. After all, only 21 of the 100 athletes — barley one fifth — play for pro sports teams in the United States.
• Guess how many players from MLB, NHL or WNBA are in the top 100. Lower. Lower. Lower. It's zero. Nobody.
No Sidney Crosby, no Mike Trout, no Bryce Harper, no Maya Moore.
Of the 21 U.S. team sport athletes, 13 are NBA players and eight are in the NFL (though none of the top 20 are in the NFL).
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
