That Tyreek Hill has shown the world that he could have become a track star; a real legendary Olympic-level track star weighed in on the potential downside to Tyreek Hill’s return to the track field.
Michael Johnson, who owns 16 gold medals total from the Goodwill Games (4), World Championships (8), and the Olympics (4), took umbrage when social media users began hyping Hill’s performance.
A Twitter user posted, “Tyreek Hill runs a 6.70 60m at the USATF Indoor Masters Champs. Puts him outside the top 200 in the world this season.”
Then ’90s track star Michael Johnson got word and offered a rebuttal.
Gold Shoe Shade
“Can I add to your headline? Exactly where you’d expect a fast NFL player to be?” the US legend wrote in a retweet. Johnson was not finished and gave a longer explanation.
Johnson must have heard Hill’s boasts for years that he could defeat Usain Bolt in a race as he let off another tweet to discredit the idea.
“A 10.18 sprinter claims he can compete with the world’s best. No one pays any attention because it’s ridiculous right?” Johnson wrote in another tweet. “But when it’s an NFL star things change. I get the intrigue, but unless that race happens, the media attention puts them on equal footing. And who does that hurt?”
The Crossover
The crossover abilities of talented athletes have gone on for years. Everyone from Michael Jordan and Deion Sanders, playing baseball, basketball, and football, respectively, has been fascinated with two-sport athletes. Now former NFL players are evolving from contact sports to combat sports, with many entering the world of boxing and MMA.
However, Johnson doesn’t appreciate the newfound attention to his sport when a celebrity outlier decides to perform in a quick race.
“For everyone saying ‘track needs all the attention it can get’ This is track attention yes, but do you see any Olympians or World Champions here?”
Although track stars make prize money at events like the World Athletics Championships and receive corporate sponsorships on the highest level, their fame and influence pales in comparison to NFL players. Johnson wants more attention to his sport but for the athletes that live the sport full-time and deserve the benefits of the media uplift.
When Hill was still part of the Kansas City Chiefs, Hill, and Usain Bolt had a back-and-forth about who would beat who in a race.
“Usain Bolt got out of the game for a reason, right?” Hill said during an interview in 2021. “He’s old. He’s washed up and he can’t see me in 40 yards. 100 yard dash, yes, that’s what he do but 40 yard dash, if y’all recording this, Usain Bolt cannot see me.”
Usain countered with a picture showing Hill looking last in a race on the football field. The photograph had no context, which was undoubtedly Bolt’s intention. For Michael Johnson, more attention should be on current track stars, not sideshow matchups.
Michael Johnson is part of a stellar lineage of track-only American stars. To Johnson, Tyreek Hill is a distraction from what track needs, narratives that emanate from the real track stars.
