Can an a NFL Player Outrun an Olympic Champion Sprinter?

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Can the fastest NFL player outrun the Olympic 100-meter champion?

I really don’t think so, but it would be fun to watch it play out.

At the New Balance Grand Prix indoor track meet on February 2 in Boston, Noah Lyles, the reigning 100-meter Olympic champion, handily won the 60-meter dash before continuing his feud with fleet-footed Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill from afar. After dominating the race in 6.52 seconds, Lyles tore off the race bib pinned to the back of his singlet to reveal that he had written “Tyreek Could Never” on the other side.

Lyles’ message is the latest in a string of barbs traded by the two star athletes that began after Hill said on a podcast last August—not long after Lyles won gold at the Paris Olympics—that he could beat Lyles in a head-to-head matchup. Lyles has said he’s ready for the challenge, but so far Hill hasn’t agreed to a race.

“When you’re actually ready to race, see me. I’m right here. I ain’t going nowhere,” Lyles told NBC’s Lewis Johnson on national TV. “Your football season’s over, you ain’t got no excuse now.”

While a head-to-head race is unlikely to happen anytime soon, it would be must-see TV, especially since many football players, like Hill, have high-level track experience.

With Super Bowl LIX on the horizon on February 9, we took some time to delve into the unique intersections of track and field and professional football.

1. One Athlete Has Won Olympic Gold and a Super Bowl Title

Track and football have been intertwined for more than a century, dating back to Jim Thorpe, the 1912 Olympic decathlon champion, who subsequently became one of the original stars of the NFL in the early 1920s. But Bob Hayes became the first—and still the only—athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl title. Known as “Bullet Bob,” he won the 100 meters in the 1964 Olympics in a world record 10.06 seconds. But it was his performance running on the U.S. 4×100-meter relay that was most astonishing, as he helped Team USA come from behind to beat Poland and France after blazing an 8.6-second anchor split. The speedy Hayes joined the Dallas Cowboys the following year as a wide receiver, beginning an 11-year Hall of Fame career in which he would score 71 touchdowns and earn All-Pro honors three times. Once considered the world’s fastest human by virtue of his world records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and 100-meter dashes, he helped the Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI in January 1972.

2. The Olympics and the Super Bowl Have Been Held in the Same Stadium

Both the inaugural Super Bowl (January 1967) and Super Bowl VII (January 1973) were played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the same stadium that hosted the track and field events of the 1932 Summer Olympics and, later, the 1984 Olympics. American James Bausch won the gold medal in the decathlon in the 1932 Olympics and later went on to play one season in the fledgling NFL in 1933. Between those two early Super Bowls, American running legend Steve Prefontaine ran his first international track meet in the Coliseum, finishing fifth in the 5,000 meters (14:40) in the U.S. vs. U.S.S.R. dual meet on July 18, 1969—just a month after graduating from high school.

In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, U.S. sprinters Sam Graddy and Ron Brown helped the U.S. earn the gold medal and set a new world record (37.83 seconds) in the 4×100-meter relay at the Coliseum and each later played wide receiver in the NFL, though neither made it to the Super Bowl. However, Michael Carter won the Olympic silver medal in the shot put in the Coliseum that summer and went on to win three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers. Although the track was removed from the stadium in 1993, the Coliseum will soon get a new track installed for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, when it will become the first venue in history to host track and field competitions and the opening ceremony in three Olympic Games.

3. The Track was O.J. Simpson’s Original Stomping Ground 

Just across town from the Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, hosted the Super Bowl five times between 1977 and 1993. But it was also once a top track venue. Before O.J. Simpson became a notable football player for the USC Trojans and, later, the Buffalo Bills, he was one of the country’s top collegiate sprinters. In the spring of 1967, Simpson, then a USC sophomore, narrowly lost a 100-yard race to South African sprinter Paul Nash on the 385-yard track in the Rose Bowl, as both athletes leaned at the finish in 9.4 seconds—just two-tenths of a second off the world record at the time. A month later, Simpson placed sixth in the 100-yard dash at the 1967 NCAA Championships in 9.53 seconds and helped USC win the 440-yard relay in a world record 38.6 seconds, ultimately helping the Trojans win the NCAA team title. Simpson starred for the USC football team in 1967 and 1968 and eventually became one of the NFL’s greatest running backs, but he never played in a Super Bowl. As for the Rose Bowl, there is no plan to reinstall a track (or host a Super Bowl ever again), but the stadium serves as the finish line for several running races, including the annual Rose Bowl Half Marathon and 5K.

4. Terry Bradshaw Could Throw More than Footballs

Fox Sports TV personality Terry Bradshaw became the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls when he led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four championships between 1975-1980. But before he was a star quarterback, he was a record-setting track and field athlete. In 1966, Bradshaw set a national high school javelin record as a senior at Woodlawn High School in Louisiana with a throw of 244 feet, 11 3/4 inches. Although he received dozens of collegiate track scholarship offers, he never threw the javelin again after high school. Instead he went on to be a two-time All-American quarterback at Louisiana Tech and became the first draft pick in the 1970 NFL draft.

5. Track Speed is Faster Than Football Speed

How fast are the NFL’s fastest players? When running back Raheem Mostert was clocked at 23.09 miles per hour during a 2020 game for the San Francisco 49ers, he established a new NFL in-game speed record. (Keep in mind, he was running in full pads while wearing football cleats on turf.) The fastest player in this year’s Super Bowl—based on in-game speed data from the regular season—is Philadelphia All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley, who reached a top speed of 21.93 miles per hour during a 55-yard run against the New York Giants on October 20.

How does that compare to track speed? In 2009 when Usain Bolt shattered the world record in the 100 meters with a 9.58-second effort in Berlin, he was clocked at 27.79 miles per hour midway through the race—the fastest running speed of any human ever recorded. (He was wearing shorts, a singlet and track spikes while running on the responsive surface of a synthetic all-weather track. He also wasn’t playing in a football game for four quarters.) However, most male sprinters who can run 10.50 seconds or faster in the 100 meters typically run faster than 24 miles per hour. But it’s not just male sprinters who are faster than the NFL’s fastest players. Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah is considered the world’s fastest female sprinter in history, having been clocked at 24.67 mph on her way to winning the women’s 100 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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6. What About 40-Yard Dash Times?

For years, the fastest NFL players have been judged by their 40-yard dash times at the NFL Combine, where top college players are evaluated by NFL scouts prior to the NFL Draft. In those solo time trials, athletes typically wear track spikes and run on a synthetic surface, but because they start at will and not from a starting gun, they’re not limited by their reaction times.

Last March before being drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, wide receiver Xavier Worthy ran an NFL Combine record of 4.21 seconds for the 40-yard dash and reached a top speed of 24.21 mph, according to NextGen Stats. That’s faster than the 4.29 clocked by Tyreek Hill—a former high school and junior college track star and current wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins—who is considered to be one of the fastest players in the NFL. But that’s still not as fast as elite track athletes. Although Bolt purportedly ran a 4.22 seconds in sweat pants and sneakers at a pre-Super Bowl exhibition in Atlanta in February 2019 about 18 months after he retired from track, it was a publicity stunt and it was later revealed that he actually ran about 4.50 seconds. However, Bolt’s 40-yard split of his 2009 world record run in 100 has been estimated to be 3.96 seconds.

7. How Far Does an NFL Player Run in a Game?

In 2014, NFL players started wearing shoulder pads with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) chip implants. These nickel-sized chips transmit data every 10-12 seconds, gathering intel on each player’s movement, distance, speed, and acceleration. Thanks to these chips, we know that, on average, NFL players run about 1.25 miles per game. Different positions impact how much a player runs. Offensive guards, wide receivers, kick returners, and punt returners often run more than other players. The quarterback’s mileage is more varied, considering quick bursts dropping back for a passing play don’t add up to a lot of distance. However, “dual-threat” quarterbacks like Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, who are also known for running the ball, obviously cover more miles.

But not all running miles are created equally, and football players aren’t exactly out there on a recovery run. Ortho Carolina physician’s assistant, Aaron Hewit, is a former assistant athletic trainer for the Minnesota Vikings. He says that most of the running in an NFL game consists of short, intense bursts of speed—as you can surmise from watching a game with your own eyes. It’s less about long miles and more about hitting top speed in the shortest amount of time, and being able to run fast even when tired.

8. Ultrarunning and the Super Bowl Have Collided at Least Once

In 2014, Maine runner Gary Allen completed a 500-mile run to Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to raise about $20,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. Allen, the founder and director of several Maine running races, is one of about 20 runners who have run a sub-3-hour marathon in five different decades. His 2014 Super Bowl run started on January 24 on the summit of Cadillac Mountain in Maine and concluded 10 days later in the hours before the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos played in Super Bowl XLVII.

9. Hurdlers May Make for the Very Best Players

Renaldo Nehemiah was one of the best hurdlers in the world in the late 1970s and early 1980s, setting eight world records and becoming the first athlete to break 13 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles in 1981. Although he never played football in college, he quit track in 1982 and played for the San Francisco 49ers for three seasons as a wide receiver. He racked up modest stats (43 receptions, four touchdowns), but he was part of the 49ers team that beat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX in January 1985. (Nehemiah became expendable after the 49ers drafted Jerry Rice in 1985, so he returned to track that summer.)

Even more impressive was Willie Gault, who earned a bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, and was also part of the U.S. 4×100-meter relay that won gold and set a new world record (37.86 seconds). Gault went on to play 11 years in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Raiders and was a key player for the Bears in their Super Bowl XX win over the New England Patriots in January 1986. Since retiring from football in 1993, Gault, now 64, has worked as an actor and also set numerous records as a masters track athlete—including running a 50-and-older world record of 10.88 seconds for 100 meters in 2011.

There have been numerous other top U.S. track stars have tried to make it as an NFL player, including  Jim Hines, the 1968 Olympic gold-medalist in the 100 who broke Bob Hayes’ world record before playing parts of three lackluster seasons as a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs..

10. Who Said Football and Marathons Don’t Go Hand-in-Hand?

Roger Craig played 11 seasons as a running back in the NFL and won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, but he had already become a passionate runner before he retired from football in 1993. Craig was known to run a hilly 4.5-mile trail loop in Edgewood Park near his home in Redwood City, California, to increase his endurance and running power. After retirement, he ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego in 2004 and was so inspired by his newfound passion for road running that he helped the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series launch a half marathon in San Jose in 2006. Craig, now 64, has run more than 50 marathons and half marathons (with a marathon personal best of 3:50). Other NFL players who have won Super Bowls and also run marathons include Alan Faneca (3:56), Tiki Barber (4:07), Jeff Fisher (4:09), Amani Toomer (4:13), Lynn Swann (4:26), Tedy Bruschi (4:35), and Hines Ward (5:12, at the end of an Ironman triathlon). 

Lastly, several Super Bowl halftime entertainers have run marathons, including Madonna, Diddy (Sean Combs), and Alicia Keys, while this year’s halftime performer, Kendrick Lamar, is also a noted runner. And Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played at the halftime celebration of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, and sure enough, they played a rousing rendition of “Born to Run” as part of their five-song set.

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