Are NFL players the most poorly conditioned professional athletes?

Distance runners are the seats conditioned. Can't sprint fast, can't lift heavy weights, aren't agile, no hand eye coordination. All they can do is run.

Conditioning is a joke in football. These guys spend all of their time in the weight room.

Running stadiums for 30 minutes is probably considered their hard conditioning day.

These guys are meant to be explosive though. Who needs good endurance when you are working hard for 5-6 seconds at a time?

Without a doubt baseball.

Bowling, fishing, or golf would probably be the most poorly conditioned. Some people consider poker to be a sport, so their pros are probably in pretty bad shape too.

exxxplosive wrote:

Conditioning is a joke in football.

You've obviously never played football.

To answer the primary question, I would go with baseball players.

To play devils advocate, its not just running a few yards. It is 10- to 20-second bursts of sustained effort to shove large men in order to get to the QB, block, get downfield and open, or gain yards on the ground.

If you were to take the average distance runner and ask them to push a car which has been placed in neutral for several seconds, without the advantage of momentum, the distance runner would probably be winded. Now, imagine that you only have a 20-30 second break before having to do so again (or less if a hurry-up offense is being run), and you can see where the exhaustion would set in.

Now, imagine throwing on thick pads and a helmet which trap heat, along with an added 50 or 100 pounds of lean and adipose tissue.

In other words, football is like an interval workout on crack, especially during extended drives with no time-outs.

You know who's in the best condition to play football?

Football players.

Roger Goodell wrote:

In what other sport is it common or even acceptable to see a guy sucking oxygen through a mask after having run a few yards? Any well conditioned athlete shouldn't need supplemental oxygen to play.

Anyone who has participated in D1 summer training in pads in 90 degree temps would never ask that question. You can't expect someone who weighs 250 pounds and built for explosiveness to go out on a 10 mile run. Unless you think conditioning is just cardio.

Fetty Wap wrote:

Without a doubt baseball.

Beiseball been bery, bery good to Pablo Sandoval -- $90 million 3rd baseman with an eating disorder.

Of all of the Olympic sports I would say golf.

Nonsense. Watch some rugby union or even sevens and tell me that a 250 lb man can't get themselves to a level of fitness where they don't have to sub themselves out and suck on oxygen.

Did you skip over Lydiard's chapter about ball sports?

NFLers poor conditioning is at a point where coaches like Chip Kelly try to exploit it by fielding better conditioned players.

And as an aside, D1 athletes aren't professionals, right?

You missed billiards players.

cheezypoofs wrote:

Bowling, fishing, or golf would probably be the most poorly conditioned. Some people consider poker to be a sport, so their pros are probably in pretty bad shape too.

Roger Goodell wrote:

NFLers poor conditioning is at a point where coaches like Chip Kelly try to exploit it by fielding better conditioned players.

And it's worked out so well for him!

Baseball is far worse than football. They run 30 yards at about 12 minute/mile pace and are gassed. Even 300 pound footballers can run 40 yards in 5 seconds. I'd bet 90% of letsrunners can't run the 40 in 5 seconds. Sad that someone 3x your weight is faster.

Why the hate on baseball players? Sandoval and Colon are the exception, not the rule. Look in most dugouts and you'll see a group of fairly well conditioned guys.

Blah Blah Blah. wrote:

Of all of the Olympic sports I would say golf.

Baloney, they have to WALK 6 miles every day. Their caddies are even better conditioned.

Blah Blah Blah. wrote:

Of all of the Olympic sports I would say golf.

If you are going to go all Olympics on us, got to be the coxswainin in rowing. All that lil guy does is yell at the "real" athletes. Hmm, kinda sounds like half the Letsrun posters.

Dora the Agoraphobiac wrote:

Roger Goodell wrote:

NFLers poor conditioning is at a point where coaches like Chip Kelly try to exploit it by fielding better conditioned players.

And it's worked out so well for him!

For some reason he forgot when he came to the pros his team would be basically cut in half. Harder to run a multitude of players out when there aren't any available. Kelly just wears his own guys down now, too.

Old Man now wrote:

Blah Blah Blah. wrote:

Of all of the Olympic sports I would say golf.

If you are going to go all Olympics on us, got to be the coxswainin in rowing. All that lil guy does is yell at the "real" athletes. Hmm, kinda sounds like half the Letsrun posters.

Coxswains are amazing athletes next to Olympic air pistol competitors. Also the Olympic equestrian event called dressage. Dressage is the only Olympic event where I've seen the competitors smoking while watching the competition.