Whether or not a track star can make the transition from the track to the football field is a crap shoot. However, in a world where an athletic quarterback with no receiving experience (Matt Jones) was drafted in the first-round because of his size and athletic ability, it makes sense to give Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, a shot as Gil Brandt writes for his NFL.com column:
Someone asked me the other day what I thought about the idea of making Olympic gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt a football player. Let’s put it this way: If Hall of Fame general manager Tex Schramm and I were still running the Cowboys, we’d be in Jamaica right now waiting for Bolt’s plane to land.
That’s not to say anyone can predict what the fastest human being alive might do on a football field. But in a sport that places such a premium on raw speed, why not take a chance on a guy who just shattered world records?
Of course, Brandt’s opinion is partly based on their success with drafting speedster “Bullet” Bob Hayes with their 7th-round draft pick in 1965. But asked would Bolt make a successful transition, Brandt says:
There’s no way of knowing for sure. He’s got a tremendous body. The thing that would concern me is that he’s such a long strider. Those long legs help him run fast, but they wouldn’t do a lot of good making cuts.
That said, he could probably fly past most any cornerback. If he had any hands at all, he’d be scary. Certainly worth giving him a look if you’re a team in need at receiver.
You never know when you might strike gold.
