re: Athletes who became “names” off of one performance

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Odell Beckham minus the one handed catch would be looked at very differently.

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Odell Beckham had 90+ catches, 1,300+ yards, and 10+ TD’s his first 3 seasons in the NFL. He got hurt, then had another two 1,000 yard seasons.

I get what you are saying about the one handed catch, and the platform that put him on, but he was a force for half a decade at least, so I wouldn’t agree with you 100%. He also likely wins a SB MVP, if he doesn’t get hurt, years after all of this took place.

Rocco Mediate was a pretty big deal after taking Tiger to a playoff in the 2008 US Open.

Y.E. Yang had a solid career but 99% of people know him as "the guy Tiger lost to in the 2009 PGA"

And he's done a lot more since, but Matthew Boling became an instant name for running a sub-10 100m as a white guy

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Jeremy Lin, I mean, it was in the span of a week or so, close enough to one off for my taste.

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Jeremy Lin bounced around for years afterward

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There are a lot of guys with similar stat profiles who never achieved his notoriety because that catch by a player in the NY media market made him a household name.

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The dude was making circus catches almost every week for a good 4-5 years. Maybe that catch was his breakthrough moment as a rookie or whatever, but to me this thread was asking about guys who had one big performance then did effectively nothing significant after that. Beckham was one of the best WRs in the NFL for a long time in NFL years.

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Think about how many guys just from LSU had similar or better numbers and I’d argue none were as famous as him.

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I can't think of any. Until injuries caught up with him, he had a season (17 gm) average of 105 receptions, 1475 yards, and 11 TDs through his first 6 years. No one else has really touched those type of numbers from LSU except Chase and Jefferson, and they're probably regarded higher than Beckham ever was. I think a lot of people might remember that catch with Beckham and forget how good he was outside of that catch. He was setting records for yards and catches through "insert number of years in the league" for the first 5-6 years of his career.

And TBH, I think what made him the most famous, or infamous, was his on and off the field antics after that catch.

No one outside baseball lifers would remember the name Armando Galaragga outside of one "perfect" game.

Malcolm Butler?

Baseball fans today know a few names based on one play, that they otherwise wouldn't know who they are.

Bill Buckner
Kirk Gibson

This isn't to say that they weren't fine players in their own right, but they became "names" that survive in sporting lore for decades based on one performance, so I feel it fits the criteria

In the Mexico City Olympics, Bob Beamon shattered the world long jump record with a jump of 29’ 2 1/4”. That jump beat the previous world record by almost 22”. Before that day, Beamon’s own personal was 27’ 4”. After that day, Beamon never jumped over 28’ again.

David Tyree

caught one ball off his helmet to clinch a super bowl for the Giants. Never caught another pass in the NFL again. His career numbers over 6 NFL seasons: 54 receptions, 650 yards, 4 TDs

Larry Brown says hi