The speed of Reggie Bush...?

There is a difference in track speed and football speed.

1) In track you run in a straight line. In football there is the need to be able to move laterally and even slow and the accelerate again.

2) I believe quickness is more important than outright speed. For instance Carl Lewis would not have made a good football player. He was not quick out of the blocks, but he gained speed very well.

To me 100m times in football are just a nice curiosity. Heck even 40 times pretty much a joke not just in the way they are timed but also in that players rarely run 40 yards in a straight line. I would care more about a player's 10 yard time. I find it especially amusing to see 40 times on a lineman.

Bush is plenty fast and his ability to change direction and maintain that speed or to slow (even stop) and then explode again is out of this world. My brother who remembers Gale Sayers says Bush is a lot like Sayers in that regard.

Curtis Dickey remains the only NFL running back to ever be world ranked in the 100 meters. He was a sub 10.20 guy. He never really showed those kids of jets on a football field however. Yep quickness and the ability to manuever at a high rate of speed are the keys.

Still when it comes to "just" speed. OJ and Sultan were faster.

Keep in mind, in Sayers day, he was up against far slower players than what we are seeing today. Hell back then we still had white db's.

Would ya believe he had an older brother faster than he was?

What about BULLET Bob Hayes?

excellent post!

While Hayes was a running back at Florida A&M, he was a receiver in the pros.

According to his myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=75574754), Herschel Walker ran a 6.15 60 yard dash in 1982 which was a world record at the time. I believe that even at the end of his career he was the fastest guy on the Eagles team. I remember him running away from some of the fastest defensive backs in the NFL and making them look downright slow.

As to the previous posters comments about quickness - he was not as quick as Reggie Bush. Herschel would rather run over you than around you.

For the record:

Reggie Bush ran 10.42 in high school

Maurice Greene ran 10.43 in high school

Even if you ignore football speed ang Bush's greatest asset, which his ability to change direction quickly (on display in the last playoff game) he would have gotten faster during his college career, but you don't know how much because he didn't compete in track (unlike McCullough).

Walker was a 10.23 100 meter man, which is amazing for somebody his size. He just couldn't cut back and lacked quicks.

Well aware if the fact that football speed and track speed are different. I just find it intersting that somebody as speedy as Bush wouldn't be the fastest back from his college.

I'm guessing The Juice is still the fastest at USC. But you'll never know about Bush, because he didn't run track in college. But consider that the guy who ran 0.01 second slower than Bush (Mo) went on to beat Carl Lewis while in JC, then went to train with John Smith, and you know the rest of the story....

I believe Ben Johnson (presumably sans steroids at the time) ran 10.16 in hs. Don't have numbers for Carl.

McCullough ran a 10.17, OJ a 9.4 for yards.

The fastest player I've ever seen on a football field was Rocket Ismail in his ND days. Yes I know he'd get smoked by guys like Hayes on a track, just not on a football field.

Ismail finished second in 1991 NCAA champion in the 55 meters while running track for ND running 6.07 and had a best in the 60 meters of 6.68. That is fast and he had the quickness on the football field.

Yes but...

Sam Graddy

Wilie Gault

Henry Carr

Michael Bates

Ray Norton

Frank Budd

Gerald Tinker

Larry Burton

James Jett

Bob Hayes

Ron Brown

...had Olympic speed. All played in the NFL.

Now add sub 10.10

Alvis Whitted

Darrel Green

Believe me 6.07 for 55 meters is Olympic speed. Rocket just never ran after college. The list you gave is very strong. Did you know that Willie Gault is still running and winning Master's races these days.

The 60 is not the 100. Herb Washington? Henry Neal? Darel Newman? Sam Perry? Houston McTear?

Yep on Gault.

larry bird had a fast 40 also

If Reggie Bush had been on the track team and had been trained as a sprinter, with all the correct mechanics, I have no doubt whatsoever he could have become a world-class sprinter. He simply didn't ever try to be. Why bother when the dollar$ are in football?

I wonder if vertical jump is a better indicator of explosiveness in football. Barry Sanders who was one of the fastest I ever watched in the NFL (irregardless of what he or anyone was ever clocked at) could dunk a basketball. He sure had the explosiveness.

I also agree with the poster above about Rocket Ishmail. I saw him play in college and was just stunned to watch him run all over the field. He could leave everyone behind.

brutal - why don't just use your 'real' name. your efforts at camouflage are transparent ... every time.