Wideout Bolt? Ummmm....no.

You are a damn idiot! Running track and field and American football are two different sports that require different prepartations. Furthermore, Jamaicans do not play American football and this sport will NEVER be considered of any importance in Jamaica. So I am sure Usain has no need or desire to play this American sport where there is NO international competition, ass hole.

J. Campbell: Easy..Take some deep breaths.
Curran just brought up an intresting topic that more than likely willl never happen as he himself points out..lane luttrell

Wow!! The degree of self-absorption of this writer cannot be any more evident. An American's lack of understanding that the NFL has no real value in the global marketplace is astonishing. Given this level of talent, nobody with all their marbles will opt for anything to do with that brand of sport, besides "football" as the world knows it, is really soccer- the global supersport, something America has finally struggled to grasp. Usain Bolt is a phenom like no other, and is now to be likened to Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and others on that tier of achievement. Millions of dollars await this young man who will change this sprint sport for a long time. Why waste this prodigy's life in the N-F-L?? No imagination. Ignorance at its highest level.

The speculation about Usain Bolt isn't surprising. A lot of track stars have gone on to pro football careers: The 1984 49ers, for example, had three players who were current national high school record holders in their events – Russ Francis (javelin), Michael Carter (shot put) and Renaldo Nehemiah (high hurdles). Francis and Carter had honorable careers, while Nehemiah, perhaps the greatest hurdler ever, lasted three mediocre seasons. The distinction here, as it is almost invariably, is that those who make the transition most successfully are those who also played football in college and ran track almost as an extracurricular activity. Even Bob Hayes, the prototype for track stars-turned-football stars, went to Florida A&M on a football scholarship. Speed and size are not enough: Skills, good hands and the ability to take a hit matter far more. Tom Curran is right: Usain Bolt – the fastest and maybe greatest sprinter in history – would be a disastrous NFL pick.

Petty and irrelevant!Usain has no interest in Football or migrating to the Us to play football, His second love is cricket for which he was a great fast bowler a sport you probably know nothing about but that is also very popular in the caribbean as Jamaica.

The QUESTION is does BOLT have the HEART to play football. Nobody is trying to take your head off in track but football it is something altogether different.

the question is brought up becasue he is 6'5 and fast.those 2 factors alone make this an interesting question. is the writer serious about it, no. did we forget that John Capel played football at Florida. Willie Gault was a track star too.

And to compare Bolt to Tiger, Jordan and Gretzky is simply ridiculous. Those three have had sustained excellence over their careers. If bolt comes back and does this in the next world championships, and 2012 olympics, then you can think about comparing him to some of the great athletes.

Well. It is an interesting idea. Sprinters have a short shelf life and dont make the kind of money that NFL can give. They also need good representation (Endorsements) and endurance. if i were Bolt, i will think about it when i finish my career.

Well put Mark, the reasons to go to the NFL would be to capitalize on your legendary speed, possibly after your sprinting career is over and get a lucrative contract from a speed hungry team like the Raiders. DB56 and J Campbell are morons if they think Usain would turn down a 50-60 million contract because American football isnt 'important' to his fellow Jamaicans. One thing this artical does not mention is we arent talking about a 5'10" sprinter, we are talking about a 6'5" sprinter. This guy reminds me (and more than a few NFL guys I'm sure) of Calvin Johnson.

Why would he come to a country that revels in persecuting and locking up black men, especially black athletes? Hell it’s big business. Bolt is a hero everywhere else in the world. I guess nobody but me noticed the fall-off of the American Black Athlete at the 2008 Olympics?

ESPN couldn’t BooYaw there way around this one, so they just pretended it didn’t happen and focused on the USA Professional Basketball team.

DB57, you clearly have a problem with The USA. All I have to say is, go join a club. There are plenty of you out there and we Americans couldn't care any less. The world loves soccer because soccer is a wuss sport where guys get brushed on the arm and fall down like they just broke a hip. Americans like tough, physical play and soccer is chumps walking and pretending to be hurt. As for USA Pro Basketball, EVERY NATION has their (it's not spelled 'there') pro players on their teams. Why should USA be different?

As for Bolt, is just speculation. I'm sure there are Man-U fans wondering if Bolt ever played 'striker' or some such junk.

marquee track stars make a lot more than middle of the road NFL players. These guys are in the 6-10 million dollar range. They

If you want to think outside the box with Lightning Bolt, then to project him as a NFL caliber football player, you have to go all the way. i.e. Just because he is 6-5, don't automatically assume he plays offense. He would probably be more successful as a DB. It's tough to teach 'soft hands' unless he already got those too! He could probably be a safety right now, and coached up to be a shutdown corner in two years. Why he would want to trade in his international stardom for 'local' American dollars is another question. Maybe he plays football in the fall & winter and runs track in the spring & summer. This would be sure to bring out some haters (IOC president already started). Tim McCarver/Deion Sanders anyone?

i am on board with jonathan, soccer is for pussys and if we took our probowlers, taught them soccer and rugby, you guys would be talking about how badass cricket is.and this black shit, get over it man. what about africa persecuting the white man and their own blacks as well. i am so tired of hearing the race card get over it or move to another country. and for the guy who seems to hate america, get out of your shanty sometime and play a real sport.

Some of the West Indian commenters should show a little more respect.

Nobody is insulting Usain because he's Jamaican, so don't insult American Football because it's American...it smells like jealousy. ;-)

Besides...he'd likely suck at American Football anyway. It's a VERY difficult sport that requires a very high pain tolerance and great durability. If you think he's TOO GOOD for American Football, please stop your vain attempt at condescension. You can't look down on something that's above you. ;-)

Note: I'm one of these American Black Men who's apparently so oppressed. Racism is still alive and well in America, but there's MUCH success to be had by people of all races.

Note: If you have some inferiority complex because you're not American, please seek professional help. Trying to insult America only makes you seem insecure and jealous. Be proud of who YOU are and where YOU'RE from.

thx.

I was born in JA & grew up in USA. I excelled in H.S. football & started in college as a fullback. I returned to JA & have a home, 2 children & plan to retire there. I love both countries. I can't play soccer, but enjoy watching it, albeit to a lesser degree. I've engaged in the argument, fruitlessly and realize it is apples & oranges. American football is a very expensive sport that cannot be put in the budgets of poor or 3rd world countries, much less the thought of buying the necessary equipment for sport by parents, schools or governments. Then there are the medical cost of injuries that put the sport out of reach for them. In these countries children grow up with soccer (futbol) & all need is a ball and makeshift goals! Shoes are not even a requirement, as I've witnessed kids playing barefoot.

Well, I think it's interesting to talk about anyway. Obviously the speed is there, but yes, you need the hands, coordination, and specific training. And to be ready to get knocked on your ass, unlike in track. And I'm sure he didn't grow up with any kind of American football training in Jamaica. It would be fun to see him try it and how long it would take him to be even decent football player, if at all. Maybe he would have a knack for it, then again, he could be atrocious. Looks like we'll never know.

Oh yeah, forgot to add that it looks his personality would fit right in with NFL!

Ahh yes a Patriots slanted writer with an opinion...go figure.

Usain would basically be Randy Moss.Run out get ball high in air, repeat. He poses a question and then answers it. "Can he catch" "It'll be a disaster". How many NFL players are retooled track stars. If Mr. Curran had his way Tim Duncan would never have played in the NBA. I can see it now "Sure he's tall and strong but tall and strong wont help you shoot or defend. For goodness sake the guy is a swimmer and an islander!!!"

Can't quote anyone but Bill eh Mr. Curran? He's so well known to cultivate wide recievers. Oh wait that's right..he buys them. Nice try at having an opinion.

Somebody is slipping retard juice in the water, here, and J Campbell & DB56 are slurping it up like horses at a troth. Whether or not Bolt gives two shits about American football is irrelevant. If Usain were offered an NFL paycheck to be a shitty wide receiver, I guarantee you he would consider it BECAUSE HE HAS ZERO CHANCE OF EVER MAKING THAT MUCH MONEY THROUGH TRACK & FIELD. The majority of the world only cares about track and field once every four years. Same goes for most of the other olympic sports. Therefore, the earning potential is minimal compared to sports that draw viewership over greater periods, and sports that are more commonly played. Michael Phelps might be the greatest athlete of all time, but is he the richest athlete of all time? No. He's probably not among the richest 50,000 athletes of all time. So, interest in the sport or not, Usain has plenty of reason to attempt playing WR in the NFL. That said, he'd probably suck.

Bolt is a super star everywhere else in the world? HA HA HA HA HA!! I can name at least 70 countries that either don't care about who he is or what he's done or have never heard of him with th eexception of a few in the population. Let's face it, the Olympics is a once every 4 years thing and most of the sports in the olympics no one really cares about once the Olympics are done. Even Phelps will fade into obscurity 1.5 to 2 years from now. Because in the end most People don't care about swimming like the do about Baseball, Basketball, Soccer and Boxing. So my point is, while Bolt may be a big deal and national hero in Jamaica, people are already forgettig who he is in the rest of the world. So it would be in his interest to keep himself relevant and in the public eye. THen again he could try his hand at Cricket but I doubt he'll get the kind of cash an NFL team can offer playing cricket. By the way, cricket is popular in many west indian and caribbean islands but not all of the caribbean. DB and the other clown are pretty full of themselves and assume much when they claimed the popularity of that lame sport in all the caribbean. I highly doubt people play it in the spanish speaking islands. Way to show your ignorance idiots.

By the way, DB and J Campbell, you should both develop some reading comprehension skills, the article by the original writer was a joke and a play on possibilities. If you two babboons could let your idiotic nationalistic furvor take a back seat for 2 seconds you might've made sense of what he was trying to say. Then again what can you expect from a couple of clowns in lab coats with the IQ of an ashtray?

El Capitan

Wow....plenty of Hate America going on here so lemme add my $0.02; who cares what any other country thinks? Some of these pinheads are dumb to the point of embarrassment. Yeah, we get it. America sucks, racism, incarceration, blah, blah blah...
Most amusing part of it all is that we're supposed to believe ANY other country has ANYTHING figured out. The "rest of the world" is a flat-out friggin' comedy act.
Evil America should be like China; take care of our own issues and that's it. I'd give the enlightened "rest of the world" about five years.

A bit bitter, Donald Shimoda?

"Can't quote anyone but Bill eh Mr. Curran? He's so well known to cultivate wide recievers. Oh wait that's right..he buys them."

As someone who actually follows the Patriots, I can't think of the last good reciever Belichick "bought."

Dieon Branch - drafted in second round, ended up Super Bowl MVP

Troy Brown - already with Patriots when Belichick began coaching, set franchise record for all-time receptions

David Givens - drafted in seventh round, contributed to two Super Bowls

Jabbar Gaffney - picked up off the street in November, went on to become major contributor the last two seasons

Randy Moss - aquired for a fourth round pick in a trade, went on to set NFL record for TD receptions in a season

Wes Welker - aquired for a second round pick in a trade, went on to set franchise record for receptions in a season

So who are the recievers Belichick "bought?" Donte Stallworth? David Patten? Reche Caldwell?

Why not Bolt at wideout?! Remmeber Bob Hayes? Lets forget Renaldo Nehemiah. But also remember the experiment of Charles Finely that was Herb Washington (designated runner and base stealer). He stole 31 bases and was caught 17 times. Not good enough numbers for me.

If I were an owner I would definitely give it some thought. This guy appears to have the confident brash type of personality that seems to be a requirement for most receivers these days. Bolt would also be very marketable if he were to sign with the San Diego Bolts.

IF Usain Bolt ever wanted to play another sport, American Football would be pretty far down his list, next to australian football. American and Australian football get virtually no attention outside their respective countries.

Most likely he'd like to play soccer (or football as the world calls it) a vastly better paying, more watched and more respected sport worldwide. I'm sure that Real Madrid is just itching to buy another fast-but-talentless striker :)

You guys have no idea. Bolt will make 10's of millions of dollars per year as a sprinter. He is years away from his prime. He will be getting millions a of dollars for one appearance fee. DB56 hit the nail on the head when he said that Bolt will transcend sports like a Gretzky,Jordan or Woods. I'm sure the NFL is the furthest thing from his mind. 6 million a year will be chump change to what this kid will make without getting hit.

This is a ridiculous topic. Everyone has a grudge on Usain Bolt because he can run 10x faster than any American. Yes i am American, but that doesnt mean that we have to have a grudge against him because our american atheletes arent up to his standards. And of course Bolt wouldnt be a good wide receiver. THATS WHY HE DOESNT PLAY FOOTBALL. He just takes all the golds for Track and Field.

Thanks,

Well apparently the comments hear are interesting. Seems like the world still
has a lot of racism. However, that is another
topic and we will not enter that arena.
As for Usain Bolt I believe with proper training
he would be successful in the NFL. He destroyed
the talented American runners just unbelievable to watch. The world of athletes runs on the same principle regardless of sport...SHOW ME THE MONEY. If the price is right Usain will BOLT to the NFL.

Usain Bolt has already said he wants to play football, but not American football. He has had a training session with Real Madrid, and is helping coach them on how to increase the speed of their strikers.