Chris Johnson of the titans said he could beat Bolt!

Mtn Dew wrote:

If I said, "All the best curlers in the world are currently participating in curling" I would get ridiculed. Track is only a little different.

It makes no logical sense to think that the best possible athletes in each event are participating in that event. I'm sure there is a 24m shot putter in the NFL somewhere.

Yeah, but you could say that about anything in the world. Yo-Yo Ma is the best cellist, sure, but how many people play cello? Not many. If 6 billion people focused on that one instrument for years and years, odds are someone would end up better. But what's the point of discussing that? We should really only be discussing what actually happens.

Bolt is a genetic specimen AND he has years of specific training under him. CJ won't be able to catch him this lifetime, his window has passed. Maybe if he started at 16 like Bolt did, but now it's just another case of woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Besides, sports (and other endeavors like music) tend to be self-selecting. Sure, there is probably someone else in the world who might have the natural capacity to be better, but in general the top people have been doing it a long time and have advanced through many levels based on continued success. They are rightfully the best at what they do.

HAHAHAHAHAH! Have Tracy McGrady or Vince Carter even run faster than a jog in a NBA game? McGrady cna barely even play basketball right now, let alone run under 10 for the 100. His knee is toast my firend.

Citizen Runner wrote:

alum wrote:

Actually, most of these NFL speed guys ran track in HS, some in college.

Needless to say, they weren't the best or fastest then so why would you expect them to magically beat everyone now.

At Olympia High in Orlando, Johnson played football, but he was known more for running in straight lines. He lost his only track meets to future NCAA champion Xavier Carter and future Olympic bronze medalist Walter Dix. "People thought of me as a track guy," Johnson said. "But I only ran track four years. I played football all my life."

CJ may well have the talent to be a world class sprinter. That said, he hasn't trained that way and there are a lot of world class sprinters that are field fillers for the Usain Bolt show.

When Bolt was the same age as CJ at the end of CJ's college career, Bolt was running 9.6x. CJ will never see the south side of double digits. Bolt was doing 10m splits of about 0.81 which is 0.73 for 10 yards.

Repeat after me .. he is not in the same league. The is Bolt, then Asafa/Dix level, then Carter, etc, then, with training and a lot of lost weight CJ. It like talking a almost great (i.e., below Rupp) college runner and Bekele. This wold be laughable if some people here didn't believe it so strongly (or maybe that makes it more laughable).

You're right. That's my point though. The idea that Bolt, or anyone doing an event that's a niche sport, is better than everyone is a bit silly.

I'm not saying CJ would beat Bolt. I'm talking about the trackcentric mentality people have where they think just because one person does something that no one else can.

Bolt is certainly the best, but I wouldn't say he's better than everyone who could have possibly done it, i.e. its impossible that somewhere out there someone has more ability than him.

This sort of reminds me of the thread about whether or not 15:30 takes talent. Runners that think themselves untalented that have run under 15:30 think it's impossible that they are actually top tier guys because they live an insular exsistence.

Could anyone beat Bolt? I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine there are a lot of really athletic guys that never trained seriously for it. I know if I had great speed and any sort of football ability I wouldn't waste my time with track.

The idea that Bolt, or anyone doing an event that's a niche sport, is better than everyone is a bit silly.

Track is NOT a niche sport in the sense that of the cello example. Anyone and in fact everyone that might have any chance of being better than Bolt has run and has sprinted a lot. All of the top speed guys in the pros sprinted early in their careers, especially if they were really gifted with speed. Bolt ran 19.9 when he was 16 and CJ ran way past that age and never was anywhere close to that level. It might be that only Carter and Dix beat him but that is because he did not race against a lot of the other guys. I think it extremely unlikely that he would have beaten Demi Omole in the 60 and thus in the 40 (he was a classic 'great at 60 but not quite great at 100'-guy). Also, Note that Bolt's intermediate mark in the WR 100 race was way better than the 60WR. The physical separation would not be that great because the distance is short. Also note that the great speed guys rarely look very good in the last 20 yards of a TD return of a kickoff. They do not have that kind of speed strength.

Mtn Dew wrote:

You're right. That's my point though. The idea that Bolt, or anyone doing an event that's a niche sport, is better than everyone is a bit silly.

answer me this. how is football less of a 'niche" sport?

you keep throwing that term around...

t&f is played all over the world by all ages.

the only other sport i can think of like that would be soccer.... go on, enlighten me.

Couple of points:

First, yes Dix and Carter beat CJ, but they were track guys and he was a football player running track. I have no idea if he would have been able to beat them if he trained full time but its at least pretty possible.

Second, you say "the great speed guys rarely look very good in the last 20 yards of a TD return of a kickoff. They do not have that kind of speed strength." Don't you think that that MIGHT have something to do with the fact that they are wearing a few pounds of pads and have probably taken at least a couple of solid hits within the last couple of hours? I seriously doubt they would die like that in an actual race.

So Johnson's fastest 100 was 10.38 in high school. That's far from 9.5ish speed. Bolt would crush him no matter how much training he did.

http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/chris-johnson?id=262

Walter Dix crushing him in state meet.

http://fl.milesplit.us/meets/5423/results/14902

Dix owned him in high school and would own him now. Bolt owns Dix any day.

Is Chris Johnson one of the football players that is being looked at for brain damage from concussion? I think 60 minutes did a show on the concussion problems with pro football players.

Raghib only ran 10.35 in the 100m at ND.

Record still stands

I can name one quality T&F athlete that chose track over the NFL - Andy Bloom, Wake Forest Shot Put/Discus. This guy had incredible speed and power, along with his 44" vertical. I've talked to him about this, and he literally chose T&F over football. Really, I couldn't believe it.

You're forgetting the US calls football soccer. American football is by far a niche sport on the world stage. True, not in the US, but if you're going to maintain your argument, then you're also assuming the faster runner will be coming from the US. Either way, your argument it flawed.

kevinb wrote:

answer me this. how is football less of a 'niche" sport?

you keep throwing that term around...

t&f is played all over the world by all ages.

the only other sport i can think of like that would be soccer.... go on, enlighten me.

Football is not a niche sport in America, it certainly is worldwide.

I coach track. I have maybe 8 girls on the entire team that really give a rip. A much higher percentage of football players are actually out there to succeed. I live in the South, so perhaps that skews things, but simple participation is very misleading.

Evidence part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nbjhpcZ9_g

Try to pause it right when Bolt is finishing (around 11 seconds). Look how far back Darvis Patton is in last place. That's Patton running 10.34, Johnson's pr!

By the way, Chambers and Burns in Lanes 1 & 2 are running 10.00 which Johnson could not sniff, and they are so freaking far back.

Evidence part 2:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/16/sports/24548244.JPG

Here is Bolt making a mockery of Walter Dix, who made a mockery of Chris Johnson. See the FL state championship results above.

Man it's fun looking for Bolt pictures. Love this one of the 200: http://behindblondiepark.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/21track1600.jpg

speculative sure wrote:

Evidence part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nbjhpcZ9_g

Try to pause it right when Bolt is finishing

Nevermind, found the picture:

Patton=Chris Johnson

I know this is a distance board but this thread shows why track gets NO RESPECT. You all are fans of the sport and you don't even respect the abilities of the athletes at the upper echelons of your sport. At 15 I ran a 4.31 40y dash. I was good 800m runner who competed at a DI school. I know better than to think that because of my 40y time I could come anywhere near a world class sprinter. I had 400m guys on my college team who could stride away from me with ease. Reading this board I realize the absurd comments come because many of you have not trained or competed against world class track athlete. You have not experience the excellence of a world class trackster. That being said CJ could be a world beater. But he needs years of track specific training.

xfit wrote:

At 15 I ran a 4.31 40y dash.

You lost me here.

Any one who thinks Chris Johnson would beat Bolt over 100m is crazy. Many of the fastest guys in the NFL have also run track and never come close to what Bolt is running. Ron Brown, Willie Gault, Jett, Darrell Green, etc...

CJ leads NFL in rushing which has so littel to do with speed. Ask Tony Dorsett, John Riggins, Emmitt Smith,

Bolts talent is historic on the same level as Jordan or Gretzky. He;s simply the fastest human ever and by a long ways