0 of 21

Sebastian Willnow

Let's be honest—you, me and most of the modern world believe that, if given the opportunity, we could act. It probably wouldn't be an Oscar-worthy performance but almost certainly passable.

Of course, if you've actually ever had a video camera trained at your face and tried to say a few lines without sounding like a badly configured version of the power company's automated voice system, then you know that acting is never as easy as it looks.

It's because good actors make us forget that's what they're doing on camera; yet, it's the one career everyone believes he could dive into right after finishing the afternoon shift.

It's no shocker that when star athletes get in front of the camera in an effort to be an actor (for at least that moment), the results are often hard to watch. Like all of us, they get paid to do a job and that job is not acting.

So, when an athlete manages to turn in a solid, maybe even great, performance, it's typically memorable, because he or she beat even the most tepid expectations.