Soccer players would be the best distance runners, and NFL players would be the best sprinters

Most people just don't get how many NFL players were track athletes.......also.

Ezekial Elliott was a stud HS hurdler as was Todd Gurley.

Eric Dickinson a Texas State sprint champ.

Randy Moss won his conference in the indoor 60 and 200m.

Jordy Nelson a Kansas State 100m champ. As was John Riggins (a lighter version)

While in HS Gale Sayers led the nation in the long jump.

Lynn Swann a Cali State long jump champ. As was the great Hugh "The King" McElhenny.

"Jaguar" Jon Arnett a long jumper while at USC.

And it goes on and on and on and on......................

Scorpion_runner wrote:

soccer players would be the best distance runners.

Stupid generalization. Soccer players' running ability covers the spectrum from sprinting to long distance ability.

Why do people keep coming with Gemili? He was never close to become a pro soccer player despite what people say. This is why he choose track.

He was just a sprinter who happened to play football on the sideline. The vast majority of guys at the youth level he played does not even end up as amateur.

It is basically like saying that every 9"9 to 9"6 American sprinter had a choice of becoming a pro baller since most of them played HS football ( which is the highest level of youth sport in the USA) .

Yujilk wrote:

Why do people keep coming with Gemili? He was never close to become a pro soccer player despite what people say. This is why he choose track.

He was just a sprinter who happened to play football on the sideline. The vast majority of guys at the youth level he played does not even end up as amateur.

It is basically like saying that every 9"9 to 9"6 American sprinter had a choice of becoming a pro baller since most of them played HS football ( which is the highest level of youth sport in the USA) .

What the hell is wrong with you?

From wiki:

"Formerly a football player, Gemili played as a defender for Football League Two team Dagenham & Redbridge,[14] and joined Thurrock on loan at the end of August 2011, where he made 12 appearances in the Isthmian League until 30 November.["

and also:

"At the top is the single division of the Premier League (Level 1, which is often referred to as the "top flight"), containing 20 clubs, all of which, up to the 2010–11 season, were based in England. However, two Welsh teams (Swansea City and Cardiff City) have since played in the league. Below the Premier League is the English Football League (EFL), which is divided into three divisions of 24 clubs each: The Championship (Level 2), League One (Level 3) and League Two (Level 4). The 92 clubs in the Premier League and English Football League are all full-time professional clubs. They are often referred to as 'League' clubs because, before the establishment of the Premier League in 1992, the EFL included all 92 clubs, in four divisions. Clubs outside this group are referred to as 'non-League' clubs, although they too play most of their football in league-type competitions. "

So yes, League Two where Gemili played was a PRO league!! Also, pay attention to the key word - FORMER!! Yes Timmy, Gemili was a futbol player before he was a sprinter. That's where the sprinting talent goes - in futbol!

Whatley wrote:

You cannot be serious.

How many soccer players can run a 100m in sub 10.40? I can rattle off at least 50 NFLers.

So here is the deal, for every soccer player you can mention who ran a sub 10.40 I'll rattle off three NFLers with a sub 10.40PR....ok?

You cannot be serious? First, 10.40 is extremely slow.

2nd, as mentioned in the thread, how many soccer players do you really think do some 100m sprint training and go to the track and have themselves officially timed? I only know of one so far. Just about every NFL player goes and runs on the track, probably because they're too bored of the actual game.

Are we just going to ignore how NHL players would destroy alot of these athletes at the middle distance events?

Sub 10.40, "extremely slow", lmao. The NFL is far superior in terms of "athletic" pedigree then football (soccer) . Football has the advantage of being worldwide popular with a big genetic pool, still cant match the NFL potential for elite sprinters imo.

Gemili IS a sprinter who played football in his younger year, like someone said before he was just an elite sprinter who didnt know it yet...

Lol. Lol. Lol. NFL with a far superior "athletic" pedigree. What are you smoking?

Thanks for the laugh anyways!

Compare the list of Olympians in the NFL and in Soccer (go ahead and go for whole World) you will surely have a laugh. Ha ha.

Bolt is one Olympian who is playing soccer now. Who from the NFL is? Lol.

Bolt was a sprinter, even an old slow Bolt can do well in any team sport particularity playing against the soccer fairies. Lul.

Lol. You do realize that most of the "fast" guys in the NFL are gay right?

Maybe they are... but everyone knows that soccer is more feminine then cheerleading. ecks dee.

Gemili never played for Dagenham, he trained with them and played a couple of exhibition game but never in a pro match. I know that as a fact

It is yet another Wikipedia bullshxt story.

So no he was never a pro soccer player.

So we should believe an anonymous poster on a running site over Wikipedia? Makes sense.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Hardloper wrote:

Many soccer players would be good sprinters, see ex-pro footballer Adam Gemili, or Kabange Mupopo, pro 400m runner and captain of the Zambia women's national team.

The World Cup match statistics on the FIFA website show how much time players spend in each range (walking, jogging, running, sprinting) so you can see for yourself what mix of speeds different players and positions run.

But they would still be no match for WRs or running back Backs, too many of them run 10 seconds

Top 100 nfl players who ran sub 11...list is crazy

Herschel walker ran 10.23

I’m surprised Devin Hester’s time is only 10.62

Deion Sanders ran 10.26

Bottom line soccer players would get smoked.

https://web.stanford.edu/~clint/100m_nfl.htm

Jeff Demps 10.01

Here is an article that goes along with what was said

And keep in mind that there are more pro football clubs in England (92) than anywhere in Europe, including large "footballing" countries such as Germany,France or Spain. Yet England certainly does not produce better players than them.

The football league two, where he allegedly played, is the equivalent of the 4th division and is a fully nationwide division, unlike in other major European countries which cannot/don't want to sustain that kind of thing (but who, bizarrely have no problem, producing top class players)

In France past the 2nd division, most clubs are not fully pro anymore, this is the same in Spain (you know the country that has been producing most of the recent UCL winners).

Gemili is an excellent sprinter, but he is certainly not a former "pro" soccer player, as I don't think that being unable to make the squad of a 4th division team, qualify you as one in a country which has an overbloated football league system.

As I said in this case, you might as well consider that any american sprinter that had tryouts or made the pre season matches of an NFL team (which is not a 4th level league), a "pro" (heck, didn't Gatlin trained with an NFL team ?)

He is not anymore a pro than the likes of Marvin Bracy (6"48/9"93), Jeff Demps, etc...

You just proved it yourself:

"He was at Dagenham & Redbridge for a couple of years [from 2009] "

and

"He was a Dagenham & Redbridge player and he couldn't get in their team"

So you just showed right there that he was paid for being a Dagenham & Redbridge player...meaning that he was pro. Doesn't matter if he was on their main "team" or not. He was also a soccer player. Meaning that before he became a pro runner he was a pro soccer player. Not a good one at that. Imagine what some of the real stud soccer players could have become in sprinting if they had sucked in soccer and went for that!

Oh, and BTW, there is an obvious reason why soccer players would be less competent short sprinters than NFL football players : the average muscle fiber composition of a soccer player is different than a sprinter simply because the sport is more aerobic than a short sprinting.

Too much type II fibers = less endurance. The stop and go nature of gridiron makes it better suited for burners.

The second reason is that in soccer, skills not "athleticism" is the main determinant of actual performance. There has been a published study about this. American football is much more correlated with actual physical attributes such as speed or strength (hence the combine).

There is a reason why Gemili was "too quick" for soccer (which is a PC way to say that he was not good enough to make it to a 4thdiv league), it's because speed is not the major determinant for success in this sport, even though it can help.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321371172_Skill_not_athleticism_predicts_individual_variation_in_match_performance_of_soccer_players