Can anyone challenge Tom Brady as American football's GOAT? Vote in our poll
Baseball may be America's pastime, but football is its obsession.
Need proof? Try to find a day this fall when the sports news cycle isn't dominated by the NFL or college football. The NFL has even turned it scouting combine into an offseason spectator sport, and we're talking workouts, man - not even practice.
America's football fixation dates back decades in pockets like Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the townsfolk literally own the team, but the game's atmospheric rise as a cultural icon accompanied, at least in part, the career of one sixth-round draft pick out of Michigan.
Ask any modern fan who the greatest football player of all time is, and the discussion typically begins and ends with Tom Brady.
It doesn't hurt that "TB12" played during the rise of social media, or that his 23-year career with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers included seven Super Bowl titles, five Super Bowl MVPs and an NFL-record 737 touchdown passes in the regular season and playoffs.
But there was, in fact, life before Brady. The NFL was founded in 1920, and the first college football game was played in 1869. The list of the game's greats dates back to those leather helmet days when facemasking wasn't a penalty because there were no facemasks.
USA TODAY Sports' NFL experts have decades of experience covering the league and came up with their list of the game's all-time greats for our "250 for 250" series on the greatest American athletes.
Visit USA TODAY on May 27 to see what our experts have to say about the top U.S. football stars of all time. Until then, weigh in on your GOAT picks below, add your sleeper suggestion for the list, or shout about the most obvious omission you see.
With this celebration of America's top sports figures, we're featuring these athletes and the high schools they graduated from - or hometowns for those who took an alternate path to sports stardom.
Vote for your favorite all-time U.S. football star in USA TODAY's '250 for 250' listThe poll is below. Please refresh or click this link if it doesn't load.