Top 10 Things We Have Yet to See on Survivor (But May Someday)

 I do a lot of blog posts on one of my favorite TV shows ever, Survivor.  I enjoy how the game has evolved over the years, and new things are happening all the time with its evolution.  We had a fan-favorite player get eliminated by default with Cirie in Game Changers.  We had a tribal in Second Chance where idols negated every vote.  But some instances or occurrences have never happened in Survivor history.  With all the new advantages and the numerous idols put into play by the showrunners, not only are some of these things likely to happen, but I think they (Jeff included) want them to happen.

10. A "No Vote" Tribal Council
One thing I'm not a fan of in recent seasons is how easy it is to lose your vote.  In fact, in Season 44, just going to the summit meant you lost your vote, unless you got lucky and succeeded in that 1/3 shot of getting an advantage.  It's so dumb.  Anyway, with how easy it is to lose your vote, and with shots in the dark, and with how small tribes can get, I feel like a "no vote" tribal council may happen someday.  I'm sure they have a plan in place for this, but this "dramatic moment" would feel so contrived, as do a lot of them in recent seasons.  And by a "no vote" tribal council, I do not mean a tribal council where all votes are negated.  That's happened before.  I mean a tribal council where everyone present has lost their vote or chooses to lose their vote.  Very unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

9. A plurality tie at Final Tribal Council
I have a feeling this could happen in 44 (Spoiler alert: It does not).  But given three finalists, a tie with a plurality vote is certainly possible.  With 8 jurors like 44 has, we could see a 3-3-2 final vote.  Or if they had 9 jurors, a 4-4-1, or do I even say a 3-3-3?  We've seen a tie before in Ghost Island, but in that case, Laurel did not receive a vote and ended up casting the tie-breaking vote.  So if there's a 3-3-2 tie, how is it broken?  Do the 2 people who voted for the 3rd place person and the 3rd place person themself break the tie?  We may get that answer someday.

8. "Everyone's Safe" Tribal Council
This is what I think Jeff and the producers want most.  A tribal council where everyone is safe via immunity, idol, advantage, or shot in the dark.  We were close to it with the Cirie elimination in Game Changers.  But what would happen here?  They just vote out two people next time?  Everyone's safety cancels out and gets removed?  Draw rocks?  They fight for it?

7. Someone puts themselves into final 4 fire making and loses
We've seen it only once before where the player who won final immunity put themselves into fire: Chris in Edge of Extinction.  He won his fire-making duel with Rick Devens and then won the game.  A few others have considered attempting it, some of them regretting not doing so.  I think we will see (and likely soon) someone put themselves into fire, but lose.  It's become a running trend that winning fire-making looks a lot better to the jury.  This would happen when someone needs a boost to their resumé and knows they have no shot at winning without it.

Update: Heidi in 44 put herself into fire making, but won the fire making over Carson.  However, she still did not win the game, the first to put themselves into fire making but lose the game.

6. Multiple fake idols played at one tribal council
Hard as it may seem, we've never seen multiple fake idols be attempted to be played at the same tribal council.  For the first time in 44, producers made and introduced fake idols into the game.  In the past, players always had to make them themselves.  I think we may soon see a tribal council where someone attempts to play an idol but it turns out to be fake, and someone else attempts the same, feeling like there is no way theirs could be fake as well.

5. A player gets all the way to the end without ever having been vulnerable at a tribal council
I'm sure there have been a few players who have been somewhat close.  But this may never happen.  However, it theoretically is possible that a player gets all the way to the end without having been eligible to be voted for.  Their starting tribe would have to win every immunity, and they'd have to win individual immunity or be separated into a group that doesn't go to tribal every vote until the Final 3.  This person would have to be godlike at challenges.  They'd have to be smart with puzzles and athletic for endurance challenges.  I wonder if this ever happened, would this make a jury want to vote for them or not?  

4. A rock draw on a plurality tie
We've seen some rock draws in Survivor history, from Marquesas to Blood vs. Water to Millennials vs. Gen X.  But we've never seen one when there's been a three-way tie (or more).  I believe Survivor has had a three-way tie before, but it's always been resolved on the revote.  You'd think perhaps there'd be a tribe of 6 people with three twosomes, the twosomes all targeting three different people.  But generally, two pairs of twosomes get together to target one of the two odd people out.  Or, if a tribe has three people, each one targeting someone else.  I thought we might've seen that on Tika in 44 when they had just Caroline, Joshua, and Yam-Yam.

3. Someone gives someone their immunity necklace who then in turn plays an idol for them
I just think this would be a cute moment if it ever happened.  Two players close in the game, both of whom would be vulnerable.  One has individual immunity, but they decide to see if they can throw off the opposition and they give their immunity to their ally.  Said ally then plays an idol they happen to have on the first player.  This has never happened before, since the second player could just play their idol, but I'd still love to see it for the drama and fireworks.  Plus, it's something players would have to come up with, not the producers.

2. A player votes out someone with their idol
Let me explain.  In 44, we saw the introduction of the "Control a Vote" where Heidi got to control Lauren's vote.  Also, players loan idols all the time, namely in recent years to avoid the Knowledge is Power advantage.  This could mean someone is forced to vote out someone who has their idol.  That would just be such a kick in the nuts.  

1. A rock draw for $1 million?!
Even with a final three, a deadlock tribal council is possible.  I believe, for this reason, the show tries to avoid a jury size that is a multiple of 3 (namely 9).  I don't believe they've had a jury where the final 3 could've each gotten the same number of votes.  But I could be wrong.  But surely they must have something in place for this in case it happens.  For example, in Winners at War, what if one more person had left the Edge (joining Sandra in doing so), and the 15 jurors split their votes 5-5-5 between Tony, Natalie, and Michele?  Surely they wouldn't do a rock draw for $1 million, right?  I guess they'd have the jury talk it over until they came to a consensus.  Or possibly re-vote until someone gets the majority.  

BONUS (Unlikely): A juror that never casts a vote
We saw in 44 how Matt got to the jury, despite the only time he ever cast a vote being the time he got voted out.  Well, with how much the producers love taking people's votes away in mind (and the Shot in the Dark), we could see a juror on Survivor who never casts a vote, not even for a winner.  This could only happen if they re-introduced the "Remove a Juror" advantage, as seen in Kaoh Rong.  That was only introduced because of the med-evacs and needing an extra challenge, but I feel like we potentially could see it again.  Imagine, you get on the jury, but you don't get to cast a vote all game.  We will probably see a juror at some point that the first time they put pen to paper is for the winner.

Ten Greatest Athletes I Have Ever Watched

I am a big fan of sports, namely baseball, basketball, and football.  I have watched countless hours of each.  I am only 31 and I've only been watching sports since around the turn of the millennium, so these athletes will had to have played then or later.  I got inspired to do this post by the recent and sudden passing of one of them, as you'll see later down this list.  I make many reference to a GOAT, which isn't a farm animal, but the Greatest Of All Time in their respective sport.  So I discuss the possibility of these players being the GOAT in their respective sports league.  I did my best to include a variety of players, not just between my three favorite sports, but in regards to positions, offense and defense, hitting and pitching.

First though, I have to include some honorable mentions:
MLB: Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay, Albert Pujols
NBA: Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash
NFL: Tony Gonzalez, Ed Reed, Adrian Peterson, Brian Urlacher

10. Pedro Martinez, Starting Pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies
Boy this was a tough one.  I wanted to include a pitcher on this list, and there are so many good ones.  I went with Pedro, just because of how dominant he was for a stretch.  He had an ERA under 2.50 for FIVE straight years.  That's hard to do in one year.  That stretches out to seven years if you include an ERA under 3.00.  He was the most dominant pitcher around the turn of the millennium, which is why I included him.  When I first got into baseball, he was the best there was.

9. Ray Lewis, Linebacker, Baltimore Ravens
Ray was an incredible force at the linebacker position.  He helped anchor one of the greatest defenses of all time in the 2000 Ravens.  He also got the Ravens back to the big game in 2012 in his final season and won another Super Bowl.  He was just the most ferocious and tenacious linebacker, maybe even defensive player, I ever watched.  The Ravens almost always had a top ten defense while he was with them.  He also made the cover of Madden, not easy to do for a defensive player.

8. Mike Trout, Outfielder, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
He's barely into his career and he's already on this list?  Yup.  He has got off to such an insane start to his career, that if he were to double it or better, he would have the greatest hitting stat line in the history of baseball.  I've been able to see him excel at the game of baseball in all its facets, because he plays in the same division as my Seattle Mariners.  He's the epitome of the five tool player; it's like he was designed in a lab to be the best all-around baseball player ever seen.  His only downfall is his inability to do well in the playoffs, both with his team and individually.  He'll need a World Series ring to really enter the discussion as being one of the GOATs.

7. Tim Duncan, Forward, San Antonio Spurs
Timmay!  Tim Duncan defined class and gracefulness for a big man in his time in the NBA.  He won five NBA championships, the first and last separated by fifteen years.  His pull up shot was pretty as a picture, and his defense was always top-notch.  The San Antonio Spurs franchise would be nowhere without him.  I'd argue he was the best mid-range shooter among big men (6'10" or taller) in NBA history.

6. Drew Brees, Quarterback, New Orleans Saints
I think Drew is the most underrated quarterback maybe ever.  When people talk about the greatest quarterback of all time, they mention Brady, Manning, Montana, but hardly ever Brees.  Drew is going to end up holding most of the all-time passing records when his career is over.  Therefore, I had to include him on this list.  He was the first quarterback to really prove you don't have to be around 6'4" to be an all-time great quarterback.  He's had some great Saints teams recently, but unfortunately for them, each of the last three seasons has ended in heartbreak.

5. Derek Jeter, Shortstop, New York Yankees
He just got elected to the Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of a unanimous decision.  He's one of the greatest all-around shortstops of all time.  He popularized a style of throw to first.  He became perhaps the greatest clutch hitter of his time.  The moment never seemed too big for one Derek Sanderson Jeter.  And he played in an era where his counterparts and rivals changed teams (Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols), but he didn't. 

4. LeBron James, Forward, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers
I think he's the most physically gifted basketball player of all time.  No one has had his physicality, quickness, explosiveness, and size all in one package.  He definitely could have played football if he had decided to.  But I think he chose correctly.  Currently, Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time, but if LeBron wins another ring or two, it'll be a fierce debate between the two as to who then is the G.O.A.T.

3. Peyton Manning, Quarterback, Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos
Peyton is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.  I don't know if there's ever been anyone better at adjustments at the line of scrimmage.  And to top it off, he had a great arm.  He's not only one of the smartest quarterbacks ever, but he's one of the smartest football players ever.  He is probably the one former player I'd most love to talk to about the X's and O's of football.

2. Kobe Bryant, Guard/Forward, Los Angeles Lakers
I am still stunned by his sudden passing.  He was younger than Tom Brady, who is still playing.  I only saw the tail end of MJ's career, and I lost interest in basketball after the Sonics left, so I only saw a few years of LeBron's career.  But I saw most of Kobe's, and he was special.  I don't think I've ever seen a prettier or more effective jump shot or fade-away shot.  And to win championships with and without Shaq proves that he didn't have to have him to win a championship.  To me, he's the GOAT basketball player.

1. Tom Brady, Quarterback, New England Patriots
He's the GOAT.  Period.  In the age of salary caps and quarterbacks being paid exuberant amounts, Tom has done the impossible and won six Super Bowls.  Unless there's a change in the NFL to the salary cap, I don't think this will ever happen again.  Tom has not only won, but he's won convincingly at times.  He had a period of ten years where he at least made it to the AFC Championship game.  That is insane.  He is the greatest athlete I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

Those are my Top 10 Athletes I Have Ever Seen.  If you didn't notice, I did not include any Seattle athletes, mainly because I am saving them for another list.  So look out for that soon.