Is there any NFL player that could currently run a 4:30 mile?

In high school our 5 foot 9 225 pound running back was a lazy sprinter on the team and kept asking coach to run a mile in a league meet since he would "destroy" everyone.. Finally coach let him do it.

Our whole team was ready to watch him get served his humble pie.

He ran first lap in under 60 which made EVERYONE perk up in their seats to watch the upcoming meltdown. 800m he was still in first came through in about 2:05(not joking). He had our full attention at this point.

He had rapid meltdown by held on surprisingly well and managed to run a 4:45 (which seeing as this was an early season meet our best miler was only going about 4:40ish). Our coach immediately wanted to get him trained to be a 800 meter runner but sadly he never showed up to a practice or meet ever again.

100% true story. Guy was short and jacked AF. built like Marshawn lynch. He didn't train endurance at all in any way prior to this mile.

triHead wrote:Is there any professional runner that could play in the NFL? Hmm

No! Not even one.

I'm assuming that you are talking about athletes that are distance runners. If you include sprinters then there are many that have played in the NFL.

the record for the North Carolina basketball mile. Run by the college basketball team every year is 438. And it was run by a six foot eight 240 lb guy. So you're telling me a 6-foot a 240 lb guy can run a 4:38 mile oh, but the fastest guys in the NFL who are like 5 11 170 lb...

If you gave everyone in the NFL two weeks off. and had them focused solely on running a fast mile. And gave some crazy prize money like 10 million dollars

I guarantee you several players could come close or possibly break 4:30

Again there's guys in the NFL who are around a 170 lb. And I would guess several of those type players can run a 48 second 400 m

They could certainly break 4:40 and would have a shot with enough motivation and a few weeks off focus on it

Mistake everybody is making here is that they want to think about the typical NFL receiver or typical NFL fast guy and they refused to admit that there's a couple of guys who are much leaner and have much better cardio shape than the average NFL player

These guys literally trained all day and a lot of them trained a ton on running and footwork and things that are high cardiovascular. Not every guy in the NFL lifts a ton of Weights

No they are not specifically training do a fast mile but I wouldn't put it past them to be able to do four and a half minutes of fairly fast running from their standpoint

And stop comparing them to decathletes the fastest leanest guys in the NFL are 5 ft 11 in and weigh a hundred and seventy lb

Those guys are built nothing like decathletes....

So the final answer to the thread is that no the average NFL receiver could not do it. But a handful of guys with a couple of weeks off to focus on it could certainly come close

And as proof of this the record for the North Carolina basketball mile. Run by the college basketball team every year is 438. And it was run by a six foot eight 240 lb guy. So you're telling me a 6-foot a 240 lb guy can run a 4:38 mile oh, but the fastest guys in the NFL who are like 5 11 170 lb... couldn't come close? Makes sense!

Let's get it on!!! wrote:

I guarantee you several players could come close or possibly break 4:30

lol What?

What does "guarantee" mean to you? Or "come close," or "possibly."

I guess you tried to phrase this so that you shouldn't be wrong, but it doesn't make any sense.

elvid33 wrote:

Let's get it on!!! wrote:

I guarantee you several players could come close or possibly break 4:30

lol What?

What does "guarantee" mean to you? Or "come close," or "possibly."

I guess you tried to phrase this so that you shouldn't be wrong, but it doesn't make any sense.

I'm just responding to the people who said it's absolutely impossible

Like I said North Carolina college basketball team guy ran a 438 mile. And they just do that as part of their normal training it's not like they give them time to prep it's just part of their normal day of basketball training

At the end of the day what is any of this mean? What does the assertions of any poster actually mean in such a hypothetical situation

I'm just saying based on the evidence I am absolutely right and correct and asserting accurate information while other people are living in a fantasy land. similar to the fantasy land of anyone who believes in magical powers of Jesus or Muhammad or Allah or Yahweh or Buddha or Krishna or Scientology or the Easter Bunny any other fairy tales like ESP or psychic power or life after death or the Loch Ness monster or aliens visiting Earth or any other nonsense like Flat Earth or anti-vaxxers. Hope that helps!

Actually that does help thanks for sharing! There's got to be a couple of guys in the NFL who could knock off of 430 mile with a couple of Pacers. Especially if they were really motivated and had a little time to prep. Guys are severely underestimate a how intense football training is and how much conditioning is involved

Ezrun wrote:

Actually that does help thanks for sharing! There's got to be a couple of guys in the NFL who could knock off of 430 mile with a couple of Pacers. Especially if they were really motivated and had a little time to prep. Guys are severely underestimate a how intense football training is and how much conditioning is involved

I would bet against anyone currently on NFL roster being able to race sub-4:30 one mile. I am not stating it is impossible, I would bet against.

As other posters have stated, I have seen high school football players do some impressive running, 400m & 800m. One could guess from impressive 400m & 800m racing by football players that some would be capable of possibly racing one mile well.

O.P., if I recall did not state additional training for one mile. Once training for college football players at D-1 & D-2 institutions head down a particular path of training, I don't see a sub-4:30 mile for NFL guys. Many NFL players would have been capable of 400m or 800m greatness if they trained for those events from age 15, but sub-4:30 mile after four years of D-1 or D-2 football training? No.

I'd have to think of someone in the NFL that canout compete the best 15 year old girls in the country at running a mile. That would put them close to 4:40.

I don't know maybe I'm crazy but it's hard to believe that there's not one guy in the NFL who could beat the best 15 year old girl runners in the country at a mile. Call me crazy but I'm betting on someone from the NFL to be able to do it

They would probably need a bit of training and some Pacers. Got to be a few guys in the league who are close to 440 shape.

Ezrun wrote:

I'd have to think of someone in the NFL that canout compete the best 15 year old girls in the country at running a mile. That would put them close to 4:40.

I don't know maybe I'm crazy but it's hard to believe that there's not one guy in the NFL who could beat the best 15 year old girl runners in the country at a mile. Call me crazy but I'm betting on someone from the NFL to be able to do it

Athletes from 5 positions would be possible: field goal kicker, QB & punter (we don't know what talents they may possess) and cornerback & receiver (cornerback & receiver who never leave the field, never take a play off). It wouldn't be someone obvious. I think about Cris Carter. Cris Carter went 100% every play and never took a play off. After Cris Carter left Eagles and joined Vikings, Carter's off-season workout program was intense I understand. That said, I would stick to my bet. NCAA D-1 weight lifting seems to change football players, even former track guys.

Anybody who says no is a fool. This is a sheer numbers game. No reason to handicap specific players or background or size or anything else. You've got roughly 1700 players on active rosters plus 200+ more on the practice squad. That's 1900 swings and I only need one. Conditioned athletes in their athletic prime.

I'll try not to laugh

Awsi Dooger wrote:

Anybody who says no is a fool. This is a sheer numbers game. No reason to handicap specific players or background or size or anything else. You've got roughly 1700 players on active rosters plus 200+ more on the practice squad. That's 1900 swings and I only need one. Conditioned athletes in their athletic prime.

I'll try not to laugh

4:30 mile is like a 4:11 1500m.

Look at the Olympic/world championship decathlon's.

These are the best athletes on the planet and you hardly ever see a decathlete break 4:10.

It is highly doubtful an NFL player runs 4:30 or better.

The only ones with a. shot would be a WR or defensive back. Maybe, maybe a running back in great great shape, but that would be rare. I saw a video of AP (Adrian Peterson) on a. treadmill once and it looked pretty impressive. Looked like he was in great shape.

How many WRs/Db's are in the league? Maybe 15 per team. 15x32 is 480.

Of these 480 amazing athletes, how many are under 190lbs? Probably 20% or less. I say 190lbs because those above this weight you can pretty much write off.

Maybe, just maybe I give half a dozen guys a shot to run 4:30.

Unlikely, but possible.

I don't think any of them are breaking 4:45 to be honest though.

I am talking line up tomorrow and run the time trial. Right during the season.

4:30 aint happening.

It's certainly possible with some training, but it's just unrealistic for an NFL player to knock this off in their first attempt.

Not buying a 4:30 mile for any NFL player.

The funny thing is that there is zero information about any NFL or NBA player ever running a timed mile. Beyond maybe something from their High School career

Kind of funny you think one NBA or NFL player would have done it just to see what time they could come up with, or get into like a local mile race. There's a couple of guys who ran 5Ks or longer runs for charity. But never real speed guys

It would be interesting to see what time they could come up with. But they really have no motivation and it doesn't serve them well to train or run a hard mile. Some guys must run it at 3/4 speed and I guess you could figure it out from that. But no info about any player ever posting a Time. Only some of the college teams that do run a mile that's kind of the only info, and then just some anecdotes

Decathlete comparison might be good for your typical NFL wide receiver but there's at least 20 guys in the league that are much lighter than most decathletes

there are crossfit athletes that can easily run sub 5 and some sub 450 on training that def isnt run specific. if there was any incentive to throw down a fast mile for nfl players i dont think its that hard to believe someone out of literally 1000 pro athletes would have a shot. there is probably some punter than ran cross in college or practice squad corner that runs 50+ mpw for fun on top of practice.

te5n1k wrote:

there are crossfit athletes that can easily run sub 5 and some sub 450 on training that def isnt run specific. if there was any incentive to throw down a fast mile for nfl players i dont think its that hard to believe someone out of literally 1000 pro athletes would have a shot. there is probably some punter than ran cross in college or practice squad corner that runs 50+ mpw for fun on top of practice.

Maybe casual or locally competitive crossfit athletes who aren't the ideal build for the sport, but IDK how many elite Crossfit athletes could do it. It seems like the ideal physiques for the sport are Froning/Fraser types who are 5'9 or shorter, 195+ with super long torsos + relatively short legs, who have a huge advantage in the heavy pull movements that form the crux of the sport. That sort of build is really bad for distance running. I vaguely recall one or two ex-400m runners competing the last few years, so maybe they'd have a shot under 5.

Your stance is 1/1900 athletes (with a genetic propensity towards fast twitch/explosive stuff) can run a sub 4:30 mile untrained? I think you are the one smoking crack my friend.

4:29, while not fast in the broad scheme of things, is not a time that gets run with zero training. Nobody is arguing what would happen if you gave them 6 weeks to train but there is 0 chance anyone rolls out of bed and runs this time.

local sprint powerhouse hs has so many fast kids that they rotate sprinters into 800m and 1600m in scored meets. i'm talking 11.low sprinters, NOT 4/8 guys.

plenty of kids would go sub-2 in 800m. same kids would go under 5:00 too, but NEVER under 4:50 unless mileage was involved.

snowdays wrote:

local sprint powerhouse hs has so many fast kids that they rotate sprinters into 800m and 1600m in scored meets. i'm talking 11.low sprinters, NOT 4/8 guys.

plenty of kids would go sub-2 in 800m. same kids would go under 5:00 too, but NEVER under 4:50 unless mileage was involved.

NFL has a bunch of guys who have run low 10s, and a few guys who have broken 10 so you're talkin about another level of talents. You're also talking about almost 2,000 guys to choose from where at least two or 300 of them might have some good potential

Anyway no one's talking about guys just rolling out of bed and running a 4:30 mile. I assumed it meant do they have the talent and if they were in the right situation like a race and were supremely motivated. I think a few guys could go sub 4:40 just off football training