ESPN discussion: Usain Bolt's potential as wide receiver

I was with you there for a while, but then you started using some big fancy words and lost focus. I just ate a big bowl of rice pudding. It's sleepy time now.

You should know that it's almost impossible for Americans to see beyond their own borders.

Troy Williamson > Usain Bolt

Americans are talking about it because we are in America. Bolt is the only track star that makes anywhere near what a top NFL receiver makes, but only due to endorsements. That is part of the reason the US is starting to lose their sprint dominance, because our best athletes play other sports and can make a lot more doing so. Last I checked, the Jamaican Basketball League didn't have too many $100 million contracts.

he's got the self-centered primadonna part down pat. When he starts tweeting mid race, he'll be all set.

renaldo hehamiah, imo. is the best track athlete of all time, he played in the nfl, he did not do very well, and he got decapitated, bolt would take one hit by a fs or a mlb and he would never be the same, nehamiah had great hands, does bolt?

Bolt is an absolute superstar nearly everywhere in the world, except the US. He could easily walk down the street and not gain any attention. In Europe, as in Berlin right now, he can't go anywhere without a huge following.

The US simply doesn't care.

While it might be a bit annoying the thing is so many people have no context for what his acheivements mean that this is one way of explaining it. Its kind of like why the desribe the length of things with football fields, like the an Aircraft Carrier, why not describe the football fields length in aircraft carrier terms? because not many people are likely to understand what dimensions an average aircraft carrier has.

Face it America loves football, everyone has played a little bit and has likely watched a game so its understandible that this is the natural comparison that they would draw.

What I do find annoying is in the combine or during regular season games where the announcers say that so and so has "world class" speed... thats a bunch of cr#p and everyone knows it, sure they are fast in football terms but not in track terms.

That being said I do not think Bolt would make a very good football player.. like he is big and fast but he gets faster the further he runs, like his take off speed not the greatest.

He ran 6.31 for 60m in the 100. How about best ever take off speed.

Its no different than the talk on letsrun of "What would Wariner do in an 800" or "Symmonds should be a miler" or "What would Bekele do in the marathon". People are never satisfied with an athlete being good at one thing, they always want to see them try another.

am i wrong here? wrote:

It is great that Usain Bolt is garnishing some mainstream hype for track and field with each of his amazing performances, and any attention he gains is better than track remaining in the realm of obscurity. That said, is anybody a little ticked/peeved that the only context ESPN can seem to find for Bolt's freakish speed is to discuss how he would fare as a wide receiver in the NFL? Is track and field some sort of death sentence? Is being, at best, a deep threat wideout in the NFL in ANY way better than enjoying the notoriety and attention he receives as the world's fastest man? Don't say money, because it's not true. I realize it's just daily fodder for NASCAR nation, but it still strikes me as outrageous appropriation.

People outside the US doesn´t care about T&F either. When I read the newspaper this morning it was 1 page about the T&F

WC and 4 pages about football ("soccer"). No kids want to be Usain Bolt, they want to be Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Like totally

In Sweden, too.

Zlatan just transferred and is playing his first games with Barca, so there is some interest. He's the best player to play for Sweden for some time, so that creates interest, as well.

Had this been three weeks ago, Zlatan wouldn't have been in the papers.

What paper were you reading? DN?

Well said!!

Widespread wrote:

Its no different than the talk on letsrun of "What would Wariner do in an 800" or "Symmonds should be a miler" or "What would Bekele do in the marathon". People are never satisfied with an athlete being good at one thing, they always want to see them try another.

Widespread wrote:

Its no different than the talk on letsrun of "What would Wariner do in an 800" or "Symmonds should be a miler" or "What would Bekele do in the marathon". People are never satisfied with an athlete being good at one thing, they always want to see them try another.

Surely the athlete shouldn't be satisfied either if they thought there was a chance they could be good at 2 events rather than 1. Hence why a lot of athletes do do 2 events!

The US is too stuck on thinking pro football players are the only/best athletes in the world.

Bolt is a sprinter and probably not play football very well. Just like pro footballers are too slow to be world class sprinters.

We are in a more specialized world than when Bob Hayes won the olympics and turned pro.

"Just like pro footballers are too slow to be world class sprinters"

Ever heard of Willie Gault? Standout WR for the Bears and Raiders. Also.......A star in both football and track at the University of Tennessee, Gault was part of a world record-setting 4 x 100 meter relay team, a 110 meter hurdler who would have gone to the 1980 Summer Olympics if the United States had not boycotted the event (he did attend the Olympic Boycott Games, where he won a bronze medal in the 100 meter race) and a bobsledder (he made the American Olympic team on one occasion).

And still lighting up the track in his older age.......On June 24, 2006, Gault set a world record of 10.72 seconds in the master's 100 meters, a division for athletes aged 45 to 49. On April 26, 2008, Gault (at age 47) set a new world record of 21.80 seconds in the M45-49 age-group for 200m. (Gault's info taken from Wikipedia).

If Bolt was to play a sport in america it would be base-ball.

How much money a Pichter in mlb.

Bolt was a cricketer before track and a pace-bowler very much like base-ball.

After Justin Gatlin tested positive and was banned for like 6 years he tried out for a couple NFL teams (who didn't care that he was on PEDs). He failed miserably when his world class speed didn't translate well to the field.

Discussing Bolt in this context is hardly different than trying to predict his best 400 or 800 time. Just about this time of year ESPN becomes the "Nothing But Football Network." I quit watching ESPN a couple years ago and I have been happier since.