Opponents hated him. Teammates hated him but were glad he was on their side. Cobb used his spikes as weapons. "I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault," said Cobb. "A violent psychopath and stone racist, Cobb hit opposing players as hard as he hit baseballs."

Not only did his teammates hate him, they once sent a gift basket of congratulations to a player on another team after they thought he beat Cobb for the batting title. Cobb would go to a place in the dugout where the infielders on the other team could see him, and sharpen his spikes. Cobb was called "the dirtiest player I ever saw" by the normally reserved Connie Mack.

The best story is about a young pitcher who intentionally beaned him in his first plate appearance. Cobb took his base without saying a word. The next time he came up to bat, he dropped a bunt down the first-base line. When the pitcher went to field the ball, Cobb knocked him over, then spiked him on the chest. The pitcher was sliced open and had to leave the game. If you look up the definition of "dirty" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Ty Cobb.

Used the NFL's biggest regular-season showcase -- "Monday Night Football" -- to show what he's really all about, when he spit in the face of San Francisco wide receiver J.J. Stokes. Also broke Kerry Collins' jaw during a 1997 exhibition game, for which the NFL fined him $20,000. Summed up his playing philosophy in 1999 as follows: "It's about trying to make big hits, like when you hit someone so hard, he doesn't get up. Those are the kind of hits you like."

Honorable mention, fellas? Following his example was the entire Detroit team, most notably the thugs Rodman, Mahorn, Salley, Edwards, et al. He even taught the fairly tame Isiah how to be a dirty punk-ass by the time the Pistons' run was over.

His "style" was just cheap-shotting people, with the intent to inflict pain, who happened to beat him on the dribble drive. Just ask Larry Bird what it felt like to be folded in half when he got Big Bill in the air on a pump-fake ... that's not basketball, it's league-sanctioned assault.

The guy would elbow a cheerleader is she got under the basket.

Ulf Samuelsson made the knee on knee hit an art form in the NHL, and he never hesitated to take a cheap shot with his stick when the ref wasn't around. But perhaps the thing that was most galling about Samuelsson was that if challenged, he wasn't even man enough to drop the gloves.

Named the dirtiest player in the NBA in a Sports Illustrated poll of players, coaches and execs in April 1997. He once kicked a sideline cameraman; another time, he head-butted an official. "A certain element likes the sideshow atmosphere," Kings vice president Geoff Petrie told SI, "but the game isn't going to miss him when he's gone."

John Stockton, hands down, is the dirtiest player ever. Of course, you never hear about him playing dirty, because, well, he's John Stockton. But ask any NBAer from the past two decades this question, and they'll all give you the same answer. If he comes back next season, I hope TNT or ESPN broadcasts one game where the camera doesn't leave him. I would love for everyone in America to see just how dirty Stockton can be.

Made a living of setting screens low and then rolling off and throwing the ball to a wide-open Malone because the defender is laying on the floor holding his knee. C'mon, even Dennis Rodman called him a dirty player.

The best insight into Lemieux's dirty, dark, shriveled soul was the Kris Draper incident. He ran Draper into the boards in a premeditated fashion, then laughed about it. Seventy-six stitches later, Draper stopped bleeding. This incident puts into perspective all the pathetic wailing about supposedly dirty hits in the current playoffs.

In light of Lemieux-Draper, it's funny to hear all the fuss over the Gary Roberts and Jeff O'Neill hits, which looked reasonable to me. I suspect that if Claude hit someone as hard and dirty as he hit Draper that night, the ESPN booth crew might actually wet its pants.

Perhaps the best measure of dirtiness is peer evaluation. To quote Dino Ciccarelli on Lemieux after that fateful Detroit-Colorado series: "I can't believe I shook his freakin' hand."

Once made SI's cover as the dirtiest player in pro football. "I see defensive linemen jump to knock a pass down," he said after he retired. "When that happened near me, I'd smack 'em in the solar plexus, and that got their hands down real quick. It's as if nobody wants to see anybody else get injured." Dobler didn't care who got hurt. He punched Mean Joe Greene, he kicked Merlin Olsen in the head, he bit, he gouged, and once, he spit on a downed and injured opponent, the Eagles' Bill Bradley.

Do me a favor. Go to Google and do a search with the words Marchment and goon, and tell me what you find...

Arguably the dirtiest player the NHL has ever seen, Clarke's slashing style of play epitomized the Philadelphia Flyers' Stanley Cup championship teams of the 1970s, also known as the Broad Street Bullies. The way he sliced up his opponents with his stick would make a Japanese steak house cook swell with pride.