Bolt. Usain Bolt. When I first saw it ... not only do I not know who this guy is I don't know even know what flag that is. Isn't that ...? It's like a vacation country. Is that Jamaica?"
Now Chris Johnson is an American and a football player.
Of course he would win.
Pretty cool video showing that many of the NFL's fastest players WERE world class sprinters. Chris Johnson could definitely be in that category. Saying he could beat Bolt is a stretch I think.
Desean Jackson deserves to be in this conversation. 8 50+ yard touchdowns this season...fastest player I've ever seen.
Mtn Dew wrote:
Track and field, in general, is poorly coached and most participants do not really give a crap about it.
More quality people enter football than track. Even football players that do track generally don't take it seriously. Can you name a famous football player/track athlete that picked track over football? I can't.
Chris Johnson is a football player, not a track athlete. He doesn't simply work on being as fast as possible in a straight line on an all weather track like Bolt does. I'm not particularly confident that Johnson could beat Bolt, but Johnson certainly isn't optimally trained like Bolt is, so the comparisons right now aren't legit.
You are so ridiculously USA centered I don´t even know where to start. Nobod, absolutely nobody, outside North America gives a fecking crap about "football".
Nobody inside of North America gives a crap about anybody outside of North America.
idiot alert. wrote:
You are so ridiculously USA centered I don´t even know where to start. Nobod, absolutely nobody, outside North America gives a fecking crap about "football".
Yes, and nobody outside the US runs very fast in the 100 and 200m with a few exceptions. Check the top 200, it's overwhelmingly American over any other nationality. If you bring up other countries guess what? They're much more into soccer or cricket.
So they may love soccer in Brazil or Germany or Italy... but almost none of those guys are going to run under 10 seconds anyway. To talk about world sprinting is to talk about the US and to a lesser extent the Caribbean and West AFrica.
In terms of pure athleticism, most of the best athletes are NOT doing track seriously.
Does anyone remember when Tiger Wood's dad said that if Tiger wanted to, he could beat Michael Johnson in the 200. I put that comment in the same category as Chris Johnson saying he could beat Bolt, ridiculous!!!!
Tiger Woods could take them both.
The ongoing theme here seems to be that somehow the top track athletes do not care about track. Pro athletes. And that somehow you are dismissing arguments based on "some guy somewhere." You can't be the fastest man in history, best football player in history, if you are someone somewhere not doing track or football, or any sport for that matter.
"Participation is overrated because most people that participate don't take it seriously" This makes no sense to the argument because a top elite track athlete like Bolt, is past this participation level and is committing himself to becoming the fastest man ever. Much like any other football player who is only a a pro football player, and because he commits himself to his training day in and day out.
"More quality people enter football than track. Even football players that do track generally don't take it seriously. Can you name a famous football player/track athlete that picked track over football? I can't."
And that somehow these football players when they are football guys running track, don't care about running their fastest, and are not trained by head track and sprint coaches at their universities to become great sprinters, when not playing football, do their football coaches coach them during track?
You talk about bad coaching, in a niche sport, yet the USA has multiple guys who are tops at the international level. Where one may see football players doing more lifting, hitting, etc. does not mean they are better trained than track athletes. They train for Football, that is different from track. And every sport is a niche at the topmost level, because only the best of the best have made it.
As a last note 40 yard splits from top 100 guys are "en route" this is important because they have a longer acceleration phase then if it was a 40 yard race... what if they trained for a 40m? and what if "you subtract .24 from top splits of 40's and then "start the clock by hand" (last vid) that will take another bit of time off...
"Track coaches go to Pro Timing Days, and they see scouts starting their stopwatches with their thumb, which has a slower reaction time than the index finger. They see them crowding the finish line and anticipating – guessing, basically – when someone will cross it. They see running surfaces that weren't professionally measured or leveled. They see no starter's gun, no automatic timing device, no wind gauge."
NFL Combine 2009 fastest 40 vids talks about the "Electronic timing at end"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGc0tCCzkmA&feature=related
http://speedendurance.com/2009/08/06/40-yard-dash-times-for-usain-bolt-and-ben-johnson/
(some interesting stats)
http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/sports/20050418-9999-1s18forty.html
(more on the accuracy of the 40)
Now I love football, don't get me started on Dante Hall's insane runs that are my all time favorite highlights, the grit of the game, that feeling on the field.
But to say this same grit, and intensity, anticipation does not exist in track, and that somehow these guys are not training hard is just not true.
The fact that some athletes make it look easy... does not mean it is easy this is true in all sports so stop ignoring it. The best, are the best for one reason because they work and push themselves to their fullest.
An all time favorite Michael Jordan video...
speculative sure wrote:
Evidence part 2:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/16/sports/24548244.JPGHere is Bolt making a mockery of Walter Dix, who made a mockery of Chris Johnson. See the FL state championship results above.
Is his shoe untied in this picture?
My mind almost exploded reading this thread. I understand some of the posts were intentionally absurd but the rest of you saying that this would be a contest are such morons it's unbelievable.
Let this be proof of how stupid football players are. Johnson for opening his mouth and football fans for backing him. Completely ridiculous.
Good thing they'll settle this next year at the Commander's Cup.
presidentialadvisor wrote:
I say some rich person should offer a half million to the winner. Either would take it I'm sure.
Bolt's management regularly turns down offers for just public appearances that exceed a half million dollars.
Virtually every high school football player in America follows NCAA and NFL football. They watch games for their own enjoyment. Same for basketball.
A much lower percentage of hugh school track athletes are even familiar with the concept of professional track and field. When Fernandez was rewriting the record books in 2008, he mentioned how he knew next to nothing about the abaolute top guys or the history of the sport. That would be like the country's top basketball recruit having never heard of Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
