How to help Track and Field gain popularity!!!

I would love to see it happen, but as for how it makes our sport look, it could go either way. What if the football guy won? Bad start, fluke bad performance, it could happen, and it could make the sport less respected.

Surely an olympic run would be doable for a football player though - take a few weeks off, start training indoor in February, then go through the June US Championships, and then Olympics / World Champs in August if they make it?

They let Deion Sanders play baseball through October so why not?

Obviously, we would need to make sure that our best are racing these guys and not some of our lower tier runners. I'd love to see a lineup on the track with Tyson Gay, Ryan Bailey, Justin Gatlin, Chris Johnson, and Adrian Peterson. I am fully confident that as long as we get the stars, the track guys won't lose. I think if hyped correctly and sold to the media, there could be enough money to lure anybody.

They have already had the football 60 at Millrose. But the NFL certainly knows that Johnson and Peterson are 10.5 and 10.6 guys--and that's when they trained for it. They probably couldn't make the NCAA finals and would have no chance against an in-shape Gatlin or Kimmons at 60.

I'd love to see them try and certainly think USATF accomodate them. But I think those guys getting smoked by Gatlin would kind of tarnish the mirage of speed in the NFL, and that's a major selling point for the league.

There is no World Indoors this year, so USATF indoors are kind of meaningless. Why could USATF not give them a free pass to the 60m prelims? Some people would complain, for sure, including probably posters here, but it really wouldn't hurt anyone.

Here is the answer

Grab four football guys and four top sprinters/ mid distance guys. Set up some smrs , 4x2s 4x1s and match race. Rock and roll

Track and field training is way too advanced to allow some wanna be the chance to beat someone who is really training.

hype master wrote:

it will help to legitimize track and field as well as give our sport some much needed publicity.

A). T&F is already legitimate.

B). Why does the sport need publicity?

We don't need any track stars to race anyone. What we need is football guys doing track and field.

Just like in College and High School. You know how many people came out to watch Jeff Demps run at the Florida relays? Half the crowd was only there to watch him run.

Football can make money for track. We just need to cooperate with the NFL and have these guys an excuse for running track. Hell, there would be a boost in U.S. based meets.

Imagine the popularity and coverage track would get if Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Jacoby, Holliday (he loves track!) and all the other ex track football guys ran.

We would have more USA based meets which means more TV coverage. The 100m would probably be close to the end or in the middle so we would expose other athletes like the distance runners and throwers as well.

Track will be the player's excuse to get some speed work in to get better for the NFL.

Thank You!!!

When are you idgits going to realize that football doesn't want anything to do with track and likewise. Football players won't make the sport of track any better at the top level. The best we have are already developed and specialists. Track guys can't really believe they could play football very well for very long either. Two different sports all-together.

After all was said and done, more was said than done when it comes to loud mouth football players that think they can beat top track guys in a sprint. You dorks that think so on a running web page are part of the problem.

Track doesn't need football and anyone that enjoys track probably wouldn't want the sport reduced to a sideshow with challenge races against horses or football players.

Think about what these guys are saying and what they're not saying, because this is really about how popular track (I said track, not distance running) has become.

Usain Bolt has twice as many followers as Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson COMBINED. Once again, Usain Bolt has twice as many followers as Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson COMBINED. Look it up, because I think that stat will shock some people, both here and on ESPN.

We should invite those guys to come to Millrose, Mt. Sac, Penn Relays, etc. But that's not what they want. They have not said that they want to race Tyson, Gatlin, Dix and such. They want a piece of Bolt. Bolt--a track guy--IS MORE POPULAR THAN THEY ARE.

And "we" (track and field) should say: "Great, why don't you four guys come to Penn and you can race the Jamaican team."

Uou know what would really be exciting?

Bolt playing football.

Here's my idea: put him on the far end of the kicking team on the Raiders. Have Janikowski kick it just into the endzone, as high as he can afford. Then Bolt runs down the field, catches the ball in the endzone, touchdown Raiders. Then they get the kickoff, do it indefinitely.

Best part is, the clock doesn't start until the returner touches the ball so the clock doesn't even start and the Raiders can keep scoring until Bolt gets too tired.

And he's a pretty fit guy.

Bolt gets publicity, Raiders get some wins. Win-win.

Reply.

I disagree. The best way to promote T&F is to get on an obscure internet message board and bash Prefontaine.

Track is legitimate to you and I and other track fans. To the general public it is not. The way to make track popular again to the general public is to make it once again "legitimate" in their eyes. These people all believe that Chis Johnson and Adrian Peterson are the true definition of fast.

People can bitch and moan all they want about the purity of the sport and side show races, etc. When it comes down to it, track needs some new life breathed into it and doing the same stupid shit won't make it happen. Our top guys avoid each other like the plague. Top teams and individuals in the major sports face off weekly. This is a way to bring some general public to the table and get them to know our athletes and see how great they are aside from once every 4 years.

hype master wrote:

Track is legitimate to you and I and other track fans. To the general public it is not. The way to make track popular again to the general public is to make it once again "legitimate" in their eyes. These people all believe that Chis Johnson and Adrian Peterson are the true definition of fast.

I don't agree that T&F is not considered legitimate by the general public. The participation rate and Oly tv viewer numbers suggest it is quite popular.

You didn't answer my other question. Why do you feel the sport needs to be more popular?

The Olympics are once every 4 years and are hyped like no other track event. It is also a matter of national pride to cheer for the American runners vs the other countries. Participation numbers are always good in our sport for sure.

There is a lot of information coming out now about sponsors for track athletes and some actual numbers about what the pros are making. All of this information is pretty depressing. Many of the best can barely afford to live while training. There are plenty who could develop to the high elite level but don't get the chance because of a lack of funding. This has gotten better with the groups that have been forming around the country but it's still nowhere near the level it needs to be to help foster the talent in our sport. Think about all the chances you have as a developing baseball player to make it to the bigs. Low A, A, High A, AA, AAA, independent leagues, etc, etc. All of these are IN ADDITION to high school and NCAA participation. Track and field athletes have nothing even close to this opportunity to develop. We need the sport to be more popular because that will bring in more funding. More funding will *hopefully* lead to more opportunities and more development of our talent. More opportunities and more development will lead to more achievement and the furthering of the sport.

Have the women do their events naked/nude--guaranteed to be popular then.

Athletes doing cross-sports in not new. Up until a couple of years ago, they had 'guests' (footballers?) at the baseball all-star game participating in the HR derby.

Back in the 70's, when indoor track was more popular, they had an exhibition called the Football Forty. Wide receivers and others sprinting 40 yrs. Don't recall if it was against established T&F stars though.

If the football players are going to talk trash, they should step on the track and let them have a go at it.

I love football, but tired of hearing all these bs 40 yd dash times.

It is actually a great idea, but it will never happen.

1. Sprinters are so fragile that they will not want to try to go full out unless they are 100% and peaking. You would have to schedule it at the sprinter's convenience. That would be early to mid summer when NFL players are just busting the rust and getting fit again.

2. NFL players get paid too much and would not want to take the risk. Even if you wrote a big enough check, NFL players are not trained to run 100m. They are trained to run 40 m over and over and over. If they were going to run 100m, they would have to change their training. They won't do that to the detriment of their NFL fitness. And they won't want to risk injury and a humiliating blow out on national TV.

3. All the cross sport talk is just silly smack talk. The athletes know it. Just look at guys like MJ and Bo Jackson who tried to go from football/basketball to baseball. Both guys are some of the best athletes ever. But, MJ was just terrible and Bo, who was a good collegiate baseball player nearly set league records for strikeouts in the pros. Specialization in pro sports goes way too deep these days for people to be able to go from the top of one sport to even journeyman status in another pro sport. Adrian Peterson would have to completely reinvent his physique to have a half a chance at breaking 10 in the 100 and he would have to make up for the years that sprinters spend perfecting their technique. He knows it would never happen, but likes to talk the smack to get the press.