Likely earned more on one NFL season than if he had a whole career on track.
Likely earned more on one NFL season than if he had a whole career on track.
a soccer player in my class in hs won pretty much every event he entered in track. he skipped xc and was a low mileage guy. he'd win the hj or 300 hurdles or the 400 along with the 800 and later on the mile, plus the 4x400. He would win 4 events practically every meet. As a soph in the late 80s, he ran 1:54.8 800m and never improved it, but he did run 4:18 for the mile, and did not make it to states in California when he blew up in the ncs. Another indication of the talent was that he was reputed to be doing coke on a regular basis. That he was just a fluke talent was demonstrated by the fact that no one else on the team ran under 4:49 for the mile his senior year--and they were running at least 25-30 miles per week. The 4:18 miler (in an era where only a couple guys in the league would be sub 4:20 every year) joined me on a 7 mile run once (but just jogged it in) and I cannot remember a single other time that he ran any mileage at all that was not for a workout. He didn't do tempos either: just hills or short track work. Probably not even mile repeats. In college he didn't run track, but he's made a success out of himself as a salesman for a corporation.
But still had the speed at the time to make the Olympics rather than just be a returner for 1 nfl season
amazing!! wrote:
I would like to know a runner you thought was extremely talented, and just decided to waste it?
For me, I met a football player in highschool who decided to run track his senior year. With just a month of training, he ran a 800 meter race in 1:53. Decided to pursue football in college.
I knew this guy who once who ran a mile once in 4:16 with almost no training. ( i watched him do it and timed it) Anyway this guy ate a jar of salsa and bag of tortilla chips the night before a half marathon and then two large egg sandwiches in the very early morning hours. The guy had major diahrea at the 7km mark and it was running down his legs. Spectators laughed at him so much.. the guy quit running because of embarassement. No joke. It's too bad. Wasted talent. Someone should have educated him on nutrition.
go east, go west, CA is best wrote:
a few more NCS runners, mainly from HAAL:
2a. Chris Lanese from Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward (c/o 2000). 5th at 2000 CA State champs 1600, 4:15 PR. went to Dartmouth, did nothing, quit after his frosh year. not sure what happened to him. probably graduated.
Position 1 judge on the Thurston County Superior Court in Washington.
I really don't think he did anything. Chris Nellom's should have took his plea agreement and walked away. I think he was offered 3 years in jail. He was looking at life in prison and 8 life terms. A smarter person wouldn't of gambled with a lifetime of freedom. The whole ordeal is crazy. I just can't see the guy having sex with a ten year old girl. Its looks like she lied. What is he doing with a ten year old girl in Kentucky anyways. They weren't related. It wasn't like he was baby sitting his sister. It's like he was looking for the jail bait accusation. He was begging for it. All she had to do is point the finger that he touched me. Nellom's is college educated. Had he not been involved with a jail bait girl he wouldn't of seen prison or court. He was 26 years old and should of known alot better to shack up all alone in Kentucky with a 10-12 year old girl. He shouldnt of even associated with a 10-12 year old girl. I don't and never have. That's like me doing the same thing. I would be half crazy to hang around a 10-12 year old girl all day long and all night long. Girls lie. What a big mistake. He should have been shacking up with other athletes. If he was offered money to babysit then he should of found another job offer in the newspaper. He made good money on the track circuit. I wouldn't of even babysat a boy that was 10-12 years old because it's scary. All it takes is he touched me accusations. Even in that day and age absolutely not. On top of that she's a ghetto girl. From the ghetto. They keep each other down in rougher neighborhoods. Chris Nellom's sounds dumber than Forest Gump.
He got shot in the back in 1992 after a hot shot track workout in the ghetto. Then he gets 4 life terms for allegedly doing the dirty deed. He was also a future olympic star. Its in people's nature to ruin people's careers. If she could get him busted to keep him from olympic gold and success she probably would. So would others. People want to see people fail. It was probably a joint effort with the girls mother. People are terrible and so are people's nature. I personally help nobody except me. I train alone, I live alone. Had he not been the athlete he would not even be in jail. He says well I'm Christian that's why I babysat. Yeah and really gulable. He should of been wearing a big sign back then that said "book me"! 40 years for having sex with a 12 year old. He lived with a little girl. He shouldnt have spent one day alone with a 12 year old girl let alone 2 years. He should've been living with Michael Johnson or another runner. They even let him out on bail. I would of easily taken the plea bargain. He should have went to jail for 3 years just for the mistake of babysitting a 12 year old girl in puberty all night and day for 2 years. That's not too smart. Theirs jobs for Olympic hopefulls and training camps. Kentucky? What about the Santa Monica Track Club. It looks like a bunch of really stupid people. The whole thing does. As far as I'm concerned he should of got 3 years at the most after being convicted. It was just sex.MMR mild mental retardation.
I don't know if Chris Nelloms did that or not. I heard his daughter was the victim. Even if he did do that you would think that it would have been smart to keep things private. Prosecution should have been avoided and the issue kept in the family. Prosecution wasn't a smart idea because Chris Nelloms was the girls father. If Nelloms wouldn't of been shot and put in jail he would have made the Olympic team. Nelloms career as a runner was drastically affected by being shot. He wasn't the same after that. Either way for his daughter to prosecute him just didn't look right whether he did it or not. To this day Chris Nelloms holds three ohio high school state records. The 400 meters,200 meters and the 110 meter hurdles. Sad story.
There have been many reports and stories written about Nellom.s legal situation. From them, I have no inside knowledge, it was his girlfriends daughter who was abused. This supposedly occurred from the time she was 7-8 years old to the time she was a teen. This was not a one time thing. I have never seen anything printed about a three year plea offer. If the years of abuse are true it seems pretty far-fetched to think they would offer a plea with such a short term attached.
I have been around Ohio track and XC since the early 70's and have never seen a someone like Nelloms in regard to quality and range. The time he spent on the ground while sprinting was so minimal that it seemed like you couldn't even hear him touching down. He was not tall, 5'8"ish but set a NHS record in the high hurdles his senior year. His coach told me that he hurdled in middle school, gave them up, won the 100 at state, then started with the hurdles again his junior year since their team had two other guys who could potentially place in the 100. Nelloms was 2nd at state in the HH as a junior losing to Glenn Terry a sub :50 400h guy at Indiana, 13.4 to 13.7. As a senior Nelloms won the hurdles 13.6, 400 :45.7, 200 :20.47, and split sub 45 in the 4 X 400. Not a bad day.
All digressions of his sad personal life aside, he was the best HS kid I have ever watched over 50 years around the sport.