If NFL is A level athleticism

[TheNinja]

11 minutes of playing for an entire game

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406

3 rounds in the UFC is 15 minutes.
5 rounds is 25 minutes

Because cardio is the only factor to consider when talking about athleticism. And the 5 rounds of UFC action is constant going 100% action non stop. Those guys never take a short break during a fight.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

Yeah but if your talking about 40m, Bolt was never that fastest at that short distance. These NFL guys would beat Bolt in the 40m dash.

These NFL guys are serious speed burners - Deion Sanders / Michael Vick speed.
5. Saquon Barkley (New York Giants)
4. DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia Eagles)
3. Julio Jones (Atlanta Falcons
2. Marquise Goodwin (San Francisco 49ers)
1. Tyreek Hill(Kansas City Chiefs)

Does being able to run just 40m count as a sport or athleticism? I guess 60m is an actual event. Surely they could beat Bolt indoors then at the 60m?

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

You said "ever" so you set the rules you failed by.

But top speed is kinda important right? So I would make a guess that the fastest 100 meter sprinter probably also has the fastest top speed. Just would be my bet.

Maintaining it is more important . Bolt catches people late in races because he decelerates slower

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Professional means paid, competitive means played in the league or Cup. Semantics, but still.

Would it be accurate to say that Usain Bolt never played a soccer game in a professional league, although he was paid to play with a professional team in a few non-league amateur matches?

Point is, when comparing top soccer players vs top American football players, Usain Bolt doesn't count. That Mpabbe fellow seems pretty damn fast.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

Maintaining it is more important . Bolt catches people late in races because he decelerates slower

Maintaining it is less important in NFL because you rarely run 100m in a straight line. He's the fastest man in history and he played soccer.

 

[ramair455]

Does being able to run just 40m count as a sport or athleticism? I guess 60m is an actual event. Surely they could beat Bolt indoors then at the 60m?

yes it how explosive you are if the line - especially for a wide receiver / defensive back or running back

 

[ticho123]

NFL players go for like 15 seconds max per play and then take a 30 second break after every play.

A nerdy friend of mine surprised me by saying he liked to watch american football (very uncommon where I'm from) since it was the closest thing to a turn based RPG he'd found in sports. So sounds like some nerd shit to me

 

[KeyboardFighter]

Yeah though was my original thought until I show Bolt had actually run the 40yr dash @ 4.22. I would have guessed a 4.26+ because he get beat out of the blocks often. But I do stand corrected.

And he ran that out of retirement with regular sneakers and in a jovial setting. Just think if he was in prime with the right circumstances.

That was not an official combine measurement and some people question the validity since he exactly tied the fastest time

Who cares about the validity of that run? Don't you think in Usain with the right circumstances would blow that record out of the water?

 

[Takamine86]

Rugby players go full pace for 80 minutes, without pads.

The irony is that the Pads and Helmets in the NFL is why American Football is actually more dangerous.

 

[ramair455]

Maintaining it is less important in NFL because you rarely run 100m in a straight line. He's the fastest man in history and he played soccer.

Technically, you are absolutely correct.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

Would it be accurate to say that Usain Bolt never played a soccer game in a professional league, although he was paid to play with a professional team in a few non-league amateur matches?

Point is, when comparing top soccer players vs top American football players, Usain Bolt doesn't count. That Mpabbe fellow seems pretty damn fast.

The D1 wrassler guy said NFL guys were "faster than any soccer player in history".
He was clearly wrong. He didn't play competitive in a league, but he played professional soccer.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

yes it how explosive you are if the line - especially for a Wide Receiver or running back

Being able to perform a sport for 40m before stopping doesn't really qualify as A level surely? What other sports only last 40m?

 

[fzoid4454]

How did Greg Hardy do so well with lifelong exercise induced asthma?

You have a lot of world-class athletes who compete with exercise induced asthma, including endurance athletes. They don't compete so well if they have an episode while competing, but NFL games are structured so it would be pretty easy to step out if you feel one coming on, or to get treatment periodically to keep it at bay.

Plus different sports require different types of athleticism. Michael Jordan would suck at an Iron Man competition, in all probability. The guy who unofficially broke 2 hours in the marathon would get destroyed in a 400M hurdles race, or a soccer match. Someone not being elite in every type of athleticism doesn't make them not an athlete or an elite athlete, because, by that definition, there would be no elite athletes.

That's not to say Greg Hardy or NFL players are the greatest athletes out there, there's probably a range, depending on how specialized the position is. Linebackers, DBs, WRs and running backs are probably the most athletic of the NFL players.

 

[DivineMind]

How did Greg Hardy do so well with lifelong exercise induced asthma?

I think the A level athlete thing works differently than you're implying it works.

The right way to think about it is that true a level athletes will often opt for either basketball, football, soccer, or some Olympic sport before opting to have their heads bashed in doing mma, making the probability that a level talent goes to mma small.

What you're saying is that any person who's played pro football is an a level athlete, and that's obviously false.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

The irony is that the Pads and Helmets in the NFL is why American Football is actually more dangerous.

NFL players get more long term brain damage, but rugby players have more chance of breaking their neck, spine and paralysis. And they are fitter as they don't stop every five seconds.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

The D1 wrassler guy said NFL guys were "faster than any soccer player in history".
He was clearly wrong. He didn't play competitive in a league, but he played professional soccer.

When you're forced to prove a guy wrong by some weird technicality or abusing semantics, then it often means he's pretty much right. However, I'm not entirely sure @D 1 Wrestler is correct. I just think your counter argument is completely unconvincing.

 

[Smato_rules]

Nfl and soccer are on the two ends of the spectrum. Nfl guys are by far the strongest and most powerful, but possess the worst cardio, where soccer is the weakest and least powerful, but have the best cardio. The best middle is rugby imo. There is only one stop in a rugby match and that’s halftime, but they have to be big and strong as well.

 

[ramair455]

And he ran that out of retirement with regular sneakers and in a jovial setting. Just think if he was in prime with the right circumstances.


Who cares about the validity of that run? Don't you think in Usain with the right circumstances would blow that record out of the water?

True, he would. But I think there are other Olympic sprinters that would be faster that Bolt in the 40. But I get your point.

 

[shoorik1987]

Yes he did and tied the record. Current combines are digital clock but not like the olympics of course. My real point is these NFL "no name guys" have world class speed in short distances

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a26074900/usain-bolt-40-yard-dash/

There is no doubt some of these guys have world class speed and some are A-level athletes. But there are several questions

1. How many NFL players possess that speed?
2. Does world class speed alone make you an A-level athlete if you don't have other attributes? Like strength, stamina, reflex, coordination.
3. Are obese NFL players who are basically there to provide pounds of flesh for the human shield also A level athletes?
4. Does having world class speed and skills for an NFL player translate into MMA, other combat sport or any other sport? We had Ochocinco try out soccer in MLS (which is low level soccer league by the world standards). He failed miserably, because in soccer and MMA for that matter you need a lot more advanced technical skills and tactical IQ, the technical and tactical skills are completely different.

I think you need to train a sport from a young age to achieve a world class level. Most European soccer teams have their own youth development academies. They usually take in kids as young as 5 years old and stop taking in kids that are older than 11. Reasoning behind that is that it's common knowledge, at least in soccer, that you can't train certain coordinational and technical skills if you start training after age of 11, so no point investing in those kids. That's why I think no one will be able to catch up with Khabib who started training martial arts at age of 4, at least when it comes too grappling.

 

[chuckleknuckle]

When you're forced to prove a guy wrong by some weird technicality or abusing semantics, then it often means he's pretty much right. However, I'm not entirely sure @D 1 Wrestler is correct. I just think your counter argument is completely unconvincing.

It's not a technicality to say someone who was paid by a pro team to play soccer was a soccer player. Its an in arguable fact.

Also, there are numerous soccer players who run quicker over 40 metres. So he's wrong either way.