The fastest man alive could have been the fastest man on your fantasy football team this season, had he taken up one of the offers he claims were extended to him by NFL teams in hopes of molding him into a star wide receiver.
Patrick didn’t press Bolt any further on which teams have asked him to try out, nor did Bolt offer any extra details, except to say football doesn’t seem like something he’d want to play.
“I used to watch [football] when I was younger, and the hits that the guys used to take,” he said. “I know that it is not as bad now, but the hits that the guys would take kind of turned me off.”
A 2015 incident with a cameraman on an out-of-control Segway proved enough contact for the 30-year-old, it appears.
Bolt isn’t the first Olympic sprinter to catch the eye of NFL scouts. American Justin Gatlin worked out with the New Orleans Saints, Arizona Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before ultimately deciding to return to running.
“I decided I didn’t want to do [football] anymore,” Gatlin told NBC in a pre-Olympic interview. “[Former Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden] respected me. He didn’t say I would regret it or anything. There was a big learning curve for me. It wasn’t like I was going to be on the field when the preseason came.”
Gatlin, who won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, also competed in the Rio Olympics this summer. He won the silver medal in the 100-meter dash in 9.89 seconds, 0.08 seconds behind Bolt.
