What could Johnny Football run in the 100 meters?

People who run in NCAA division III track are no slouches. they may be second or 3rd rate by world standards but they are legit track athletes who train all year and work hard.

To get a Div III spot you have to have been excellent at high school level.

Below are the div III final results. I bet these athletes would laugh at the idea that Johhny Football could compete with them talk less of beating them.

1 793 Thurgood Dennis SO Wis.-Eau Claire 10.77

2 654 Sean Bernstein SR Oneonta 10.77

3 560 Bruce Gray SO Greenville 10.94

4 544 Aaron Pannell JR Dickinson 10.99

5 519 Thierry Diessongo SO CCNY 11.01

6 816 Alex Koenen SO Wis.-La Crosse 11.02

7 665 Ackeme Brown SR Ramapo 11.15

8 644 Jonathan Padron JR Occidental 11.16

9 780 Gavin Colley SO Widener 11.21

Well, generally I agree with you, lulz. The principle that a football player usually can't just walk on the track and run solid sprint times is something I also believe in (although there are likely anomalies that can buck the trend). Having said that, the first 100m Dash Garcon ran in 2006 he ran in 10.67, only .06 away from what ended up being his season PR (which he ran a month or so later).

There are, of course, caveats to that fact, though. Specifically, that first 100m Dash he ran was massively wind aided, so he probably ran more of a mid 10.8 "basic time" in the first 100m Dash and then dropped 2 tenths as the season went on. So, your assertion is actually correct, but if going strictly by numbers he was actually pretty close to his PR in that first race. Another thing Garcon had going for him as a sprinter is he was really more of a top end speed guy than a good accelerator, which is a little bit unusual for football guys who run sprints. When he was going for the NFL I wondered if this would hinder him, but it hasn't at all (plus he's probably improved his explosiveness a lot more since then).

I would be curious to see how fast these hotshot WR and CBs would run 100m Dashes in the middle of the season. The football fan thinks they are "world class" sprinters through the whole season, but really their speed at those points of the season are only in the context of the game, not in their ability to do sprint races well. I agree with you that they are FOOTBALL players, and even if their explosive power is way up in season, many of them would probably die a cruel death anywhere from 40 to 60 meters into a 100m Dash against solid and well trained sprinters.

2 tenths is quite a bit and I believe Garcon ran track prior to attending MUC.

I actually have the opinion top speed is more helpful than people think. Having great top speed makes it much easier to run a lot of those submax reps. A lot of the historically fast receivers (guys like Moss) seem to be of this breed.

It is definitely contextual. A lot of fast guys don't even look fast in the game because they are not skilled enough or coordinated enough to move smoothly through the field of play, which makes you appear to be much slower than they actually are on a track.

One current starting CB in the league who is known as a 'fast' CB ran track for a rival HS back in the day. He wasn't a slouch, his father having been a football and age group track coach and having him run from a young age. Thing is, he never made a state meet outside of the relay and I think his PR came from summer track where he ran a NWI 10.9 (likely substantial amount of wind). He had respectable jump and hurdle marks and sprints from 100-400, but he didn't have the natural speed these tops guys do. With that said, the dude can play football, so he is in the league and the 5-6 others in the conference that regularly beat him at big meets are not.