Chris P, I appreciate your rant, honestly. I come from a football background, I was an above average local player, never elite, so let's be clear about that. I ran the mile maybe twice a year, and was usually in the spring before our summer conditioning. I played hoops and strength trained primarily, as I ran hurdles, and running a mile to us was def "distance."
The spring of my junior year, I ran a 5:40 mile, with absolutely zero specific training, weighing 190 and squatting 400+ lbs during that time of my life.
I say that because while reading these threads, I am just thinking, "they really don't understand the caliber of athlete of a professional skill player in the NFL." They do a lot more running than people realize. Le'Veon Bell once stated in a workout video he ran over 4 miles in intervals during an off season training session. That's crazy for a 225 lb running back.
Once again, I ran a 5:40 at 17, nowhere near 4:30, I get that, but that was after heavy strength training in the morning, and simply just running hurdles and hoops all winter. As the local strength coach told me, "they absolutely could, these are freak professional athletes, some may need a bit of specific training, some might come damn close on the first try depending on their build and age."