The National Football League (NFL), is the absolute behemoth of sports leagues in the world. On the blindside of many a sports fan, the American based grid iron football league stands very very tall in raking in revenue and for the purpose of this article, freakish athletes.
The NFL last year, generated in a staggering $18.6 billion in revenue according to a SportsBrief article published on February 13, 2024. It is little surprising, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world.
Football or soccer’s richest league, the English Premier League generated $6.6 billion and adding the combined revenue of the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and French Ligue 1, still doesn’t measure up to the wealth of the NFL. In short simple terms, the NFL is where the word “freak” is common.
The 2024 Olympics are done and yes, the third Olympics held in Paris wasn’t as iconic as the Beijing Games in 2008 or the most odd as the 2020 Tokyo Games that got held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For environmentalists though, the just ended Games is a sticking reference on protecting nature considering the struggles France had keeping the Seine River clean enough for athletes to compete in.
On the religious side, the 2024 Paris Games opening ceremony’s never been done before boat ride procession was overwhelmed by the very controversial Last Supper phase of the celebration.
Diving into the competition, Jamaica’s terrible campaign was beyond shocking as the athletic force completely fell apart in the sprint events. Underpinned by a flurry of illness, injuries and baton challenges, the sprints powerhouse went out of the Paris Games with a big whimper.
The Caribbean island nation got its best performance from Kishane Thompson who won silver in the Men’s 100 Metres behind the United States’ Noah Lyles. Thompson’s relative inexperience competing at the top cost him a gold medal with Lyles making the right play by leaning towards the finish line with his torso to win the race.
The 100 Metres is and has been the gold standard of the sprints and practically the Olympics; over the years, a handful of sprinters have endeared further.
Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt with their brilliance, showmanship and dominance have made the Men’s 100 Metres the “must watch” event at any Olympics. Owens’ greatness was etched in dominating the 1936 Olympics popularly referred to as the Hitler Games where his brilliance watered down the Nazi fueled propaganda of the Games.
Lewis’ versatility to win medals cleanly including the long jump at a time doping was on the rage caught the eye but none created the buzz Bolt did in his three outings at the Games beginning in 2008 and ending in 2016.
Lyles’ gold medal win was underpinned by the drama of the photo finish and his time of 9.79 seconds made one wonder if there is a chance Bolt’s record of 9.58 seconds would ever be broken.
In fact, Bolt’s Olympic Record of 9.69 seconds has only been matched but not broken and looking at how he clocked both times, there is always the feeling that Bolt could have run faster than he did before hanging up his cleats.
If you ever thought same, well you are right; St. Leo after all, stated that he could get into the 9.4 seconds range after running the world record 9.58 seconds.
Bolt was a freak athlete; a 6 foot 5 inch man shouldn’t be able to run that fast over 100 Metres which is a competition built for guys who aren’t the smallest but aren’t the tallest either. A 6 foot 1 inch powerfully built guy like Kishane Thompson is the archetypal sprinter but being “the standard” means that such an individual won’t break Bolt’s record because his stature won’t equal Bolt’s to give him a chance at breaking the record.
With huge stride length, Bolt typically ate up the 100 Metre track with 41 steps at his fastest whereas a lot of athletes do so with 50 steps. At his peak, Tyson Gay, completed the 100 Metres with 45.5 steps with his stride length checking in at 2.48 metres while Bolt’s stride checked in at 2.77 metres.
Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake are the only sprinters who have matched Bolt’s second fastest ever of 9.69 seconds and Blake stands at 6 foot 1 inch while Gay stands at 5 foot 11 inches.
There is no freak athlete like Bolt in the sprints to challenge his record but there are freak athletes who could have done so but those individuals are picking the National Football League over the sprints.
The main reason is down to money as athletics isn’t the most lucrative sport in the world with a lot of athletes needing a second job to be financially stable.
Over the years, athletes have switched from the track to field dating back to Jim Thorpe and 1964 Olympics double gold medalist Bob Hayes. Bullet Bob had a successful 11 year career in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers and became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and the Super Bowl.
Back from the quick detour, to beat Bolt’s record, one has to be like Bolt to have a chance to do so and that means a guy like former New England Patriots Wide Receiver Randy Moss could have done it. At 6 foot 4 inches, Moss run a time of 4.25 seconds over the 40 metre dash at the NFL Draft Combine with his track running technique in need of refinement.
Other freak athletes who have run impressive times over the years like former Detroit Lions Wide Receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson realistically could have been in the ball park of either matching Bolt’s record or possibly breaking it. At 6 foot 5 inches and weighing 239 pounds with next to no track running technique, Johnson clocked 4.35 seconds over the 40 metre dash at the NFL Draft Combine.
Having God given insane blazing speed is simply not enough; a long, powerful frame mirroring Usain Bolt’s is needed to deliver a freakish marker. It is the reason deadly fast but smaller guys in the NFL like Tyreek Hill and Xavier Worthy, both wide receivers, are outliers to match or break Bolt’s record.
Hill stands at 5 foot 8 inches and run a time of 4.28 seconds in the 40 metre dash while Worthy listed at 5 foot 11 inches, run a blazing time of 4.21 seconds in the 40 metre dash.
So with no sprinter as big and fast as him, the great Jamaican Usain St. Leo Bolt, can rest easy in retirement as his record is safe with freak athletes like him keep picking other sports over the sprints.
