Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf is one of the fastest players in the NFL. It appears he now wants to test his speed against an even quicker field.
Metcalf is listed as a participant in the 100 meters at the USATF Golden Games and Distance Open in Walnut, California, set to take place on Sunday. The event serves as an Olympic qualifier, meaning Metcalf could legitimately qualify for the team if he posts a sufficiently fast speed.
The inspiration came last October, following Metcalf’s now-famous chasedown tackle of Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker following an interception. A day after that, the USA Track & Field account sent a joking tweet suggesting Metcalf test himself against real speed.
Apparently Metcalf took it seriously. According to USA Track & Field’s Adam Schmenk, Metcalf’s agent reached out days later and said the wide receiver was serious about training for the 100 meters.
“DK’s agent told us that he really wants to try to make the Olympics and asked what steps he needs to take,” Schmenk told Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports. “We walked him through what the auto qualifying time was that he would have to run in a sanctioned USATF event and told him that we would help him find a lane if and when he wanted to do this.”
Don’t get too excited for Metcalf, however. He’d have to break 10.05 seconds or faster just to automatically qualify for the Olympic trials, and somewhere around 10.2 seconds or faster in order to have a shot at an invitation. That’s a very high bar, especially for someone who hasn’t run track and field since high school.
Who knows? If Metcalf is successful, perhaps some other quick NFL players would be inspired to try their hand at this sort of thing.
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