When you stop to think about it– it’s really amazing how many different sports people have created over time. In the US, we play all kinds of sports requiring different amounts of talent and athleticism. The biggest sports in the nation are football and basketball-and we have four major sports leagues.
When you watch the Olympics, there are sports you probably only see when the Olympics come around. These are talented athletes in specialized sports. Even if you’re not a fan of certain sports, you have to appreciate the skill and practice that it takes to represent your country at the Olympics.
Curiously, the Olympics don’t include the number one sport in the US; football. Considering that Football is obviously a real sport that’s exciting and excellent for TV viewing – it’s notable that the Olympics haven’t included it, or even tried. Why is that? The Super Bowl is broadcast in over 130 countries in more than 30 languages. Global viewership of this American game is interesting when you consider it.
Even though football is an American game, that doesn’t make it any less Olympic worthy. Both baseball and basketball are American games that are Olympic sports. Football is also a very physical sport where the possibility for injury is high. Boxing and hockey also check those boxes for potential serious injury and they’re both Olympic staples.
You can make comparisons between football and several other Olympic sports from the standpoint of what it takes to participate. You have to be the best athlete in your sport from your respective country in order to be an Olympic representative; likewise you can trust and believe that the players in the NFL are all among the best athletes in the country.
What sets football apart from other sports is the skill set needed to play it at the highest level. Playing pro football means you’ve acquired a skill set that no other sport can boast of. Think of the best skill position players in the NFL-or even those playing college football at the highest level. You can reasonably say you can imagine these guys playing another sport professionally.
Now try taking any other sports best athletes and think of how many of them you could honestly say you could imagine playing in the NFL. We’ll wait why you sift through your memory of baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer players. If you come up with more than a handful; you either don’t understand how dynamic you must be to play pro football-or you’re one of these people who deny reality.
The NFL has several players who would be athletic enough to play baseball and basketball professionally. College quarterbacks routinely get drafted by and have the opportunity to play pro baseball- even though these baseball teams know that they’re going to go play in the NFL.
Charlie Ward won the Heisman Trophy in 1993 at Florida State after leading the Seminoles to a number one ranking and an 11-1 record with a national championship. The next year he passed on the NFL and went on to start a 12 year NBA career; most of which he spent with the Knicks where he’s top 10 all time in the franchise in a few categories.
You can take the best soccer players in the world and you won’t find a single player who could play any position except for kicker or punter in the NFL. Hockey players skate so it’s harder to translate athletic skills from skating on ice to running on a field and playing football. But all things considered – like body types; it’s doubtful you’re going to find a hockey player who crosses over to the NFL.
So why is football so much more difficult to play than baseball, soccer, hockey, and basketball? Understand that you have to consider the type of athlete that you need to be to play in the NFL.
Outside of the lineman; speed is coveted and displayed in the skill positions in football. Several players have legitimate world-class speed and over time they’re have been players who made the Olympic team. Recently, DK Metcalf raced against real track athletes in a 100 m race. He didn’t come close to winning-but he also didn’t embarrass himself either against sprinters who run for living. Willie Gault and Rinaldo Nehemiah both played in the NFL and made Olympic teams as well.
Bob Hayes won a gold medal as an Olympic sprinter and won a Super Bowl ring with the Dallas Cowboys. More than just straight line speed – playing football requires a high level of body control and change of direction ability. Besides the pure speed NFL players have; the overall body strength that football players have is unmatched across any of the other major sports.
Unlike Boxing where athletes are matched up according to their respective weights; football demands that 190 pounders be ready to potentially tangle with a 300+ pounder on any given play. This is one of the reasons why the NFL combine requires a strength test from all its participants. The overall speed and strength of all 22 and the nature of this game requires everybody to go full speed and force on every down. It takes a different type of athlete to play the ultimate team game.
Professional football players are so different from other athletes that you can’t find NFL caliber athletes in many places on the planet. Now we are getting to why it’s not an Olympic sport – you won’t find many (if any) countries that could put together an actual football team that would be able to compete with the “US Olympic football team”.
