NFL Kansas Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles is considering revisiting his Track & Field career should the NFL lockout drag on for months.
Rumour has it that he has spoken with Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Titans running back Chris Johnson about joining him on the Track & Field circuit this summer.
He quoted ESPN:
"Just try to get an agent, get a sponsor, try to get on with a team. Maybe I could sponsor myself. All I’d have to do is get an offer by a team that could get me running track because you know, football season, you don’t know how long it’s going to go with the lockout."
Jamaal Charles sure has the potential to run Track in the big leagues. His resume includes:
- Charles won the bronze medal in the 400m hurdles at the IAAF World Youth Championships.
- In High School, he won the 110m hurdles and 300m hurdles Texas 5A state championships with times of 13.69 and 36.03 seconds.
- In 2006 Charles, he captured his first conference title and the third Big 12 100-meter title for Texas by winning the event in 10.23 at the Big 12 outdoor meet.
- At the 2006 NCAA outdoor Track and Field Championships, Charles finished fifth in the 100 meter finals and seventh in the 200 meter finals.
- As well, he ran the third leg of the 4 x 100 Texas Longhorn relay team, finishing fifth in the finals
- Chris Johnson does have a faster 40-yard dash time at the NFL Football Combine with 4.24 compared to Charles’ 4.36.
- Jamaal Charles personal bests include a 6.68 60-meter dash and a 10.18 100 meters during his freshman year at Texas University.
It will be an interesting summer.
Thoughts anyone?
He is way faster than CJ…40Y at the combine means not that much…Hope those 4 will run track this sprint, also Jacoby ford, Holliday, Spiller, Best….and that in June everything is solved, and we’ll have foot ball in september.
Kind of funny and interesting, all these big-sport professionals wanting to go back to the track… Reminds me of an observation/debate somewhere (I forget where), as to why successful sprinters, until Usain Bolt, always tended to be shorter. The theory first went that someone of Bolt’s size could never make a good sprinter (say again?!!? LOL). But then, realizing how tall fellows could indeed make good sprinters, it was suggested that maybe there was, in reality, a social-economic filtering/sieving process. If you are fast AND tall, would you rather choose track (fewer money-making potentials, potentially shorter career – certainly less “dense” in terms of “events”) or one of the money-making major professional sports? According to this proposition then, track is left with the fast but relatively shorter athletes… Thoughts anyone?
@Eric, I always suggest Youth athletes to focus on speed, power and strength, as that will cover 90% of your sports. As they get older, they can specialize in the popular sports or the money ones. Hence the reason why College grads go for Football. But at the end of the day, everyone has a right to make money, and if these pro-footballers want to try to make money, why not? But I doubt they can match the Elite levels right away. Maybe after 2 solid seasons of training.
I think Charles’ Track & Field credentials look better than Chris Johnson’s considering his actual track PRs are faster (the Method the NFL combine uses to time the 40-yard wouldn’t pass Muster at an Elementary School track meet), not to mention his versatility.
All that being said, these guys remind me of my college days….
A guy ran track in HS and was pretty good, but plays football in college instead. Then somewhere around Soph or Jr year he decides to go back out for track, thinking: “well I had better PRs than that guy in HS, or I’m sure I can run with that guy”.
So sometime in November they come out for track feeling pretty confident, maybe the first Monday is a speed day and they feel good running 30m and 60m dashes.
But then……
Tuesday-Friday hits, as do the following weeks.
Then the Football player has to make a decision:
Be a serious dual-sport athlete who works his butt off at both sports, or be a football player who runs track or a track athlete who plays football.
Hence the reason the athlete who puts serious time into both sports is rare, and it’s why we’re often talking about a Football player’s Freshman or Sophomore year PRs.
Track Athletes and Football players are often tremendous raw athletes and the talent for one can often be used for the other, but it takes true passion and dedication to do both. The guys who do both sports seriously are rare.
These guys all think they “go out for track” and pull a Michael Bates or Bob Hayes, but if they’re just dabbling (especially the Chris Johnson’s of the world who want to challenge Bolt off the bat) – they’ve got another thing coming.
The fact that he’s talking about “getting on a team” is funny to me, since there aren’t really any professional track teams.
Don’t get me wrong if I were at that level I would participate in every sport I could, in fact it’s my ultimate dream.
But at least I dunno, show more respect, be realistic, etc. This isn’t High School where you can do nothing all winter, go for track in April and get to states on talent alone. Gay, Asafa, Bolt and the rest have been preparing for this since OCTOBER!
@Markham, I think these ex-track guys can train for 12-16 weeks, and maybe get a decent time in the 10.10-10.20 range, but on a one shot deal SB or PB basis. There’s a huge difference trying to be consistent for several meets from May-Aug.
The other issue is that considering few of these guys ran past Freshman or Sophomore year is that they probably weigh quite a bit more than they did during their track days. Tyson Gay is what 5’11” and 165-170? Chris Johnson is shorter and weighs 195. Plus the wear and tear of playing NFL football (especially for the Running Backs), could be a factor too.
I think Jacoby Ford would have the most success, only two years removed from a NCAA championship and his height and weight is more inline with a pro track athlete than a football player.
I’m kind of curious what Jeff Demps will do after his career at Florida is over, he’s already under 10s in the 100m and could be even faster if he shed 5-10 lbs of his football bulk.