As Super Bowl LIX approaches, featuring a big rematch between the back-to-back champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9 in New Orleans, it’s a perfect time to explore the connection between football and running. The explosiveness, speed and precision required in track events translate seamlessly to positions like wide receiver and running back, where the athletes rely on raw power and acceleration to escape defenders.
Here are five current NFL players who honed their skills on the track before becoming gridiron standouts.
Tyreek Hill (Miami Dolphins)
The Miami Dolphins star wide receiver had a prolific track and field career before being drafted to the NFL in 2016. Hill competed for Team USA in multiple international sprint events, including the 2012 World Junior Championships (U20), where he earned gold in the men’s 4x100m relay and an individual bronze in the men’s 200m (20.54).
He has personal bests of 10.19 seconds over 100m and 6.64 seconds over 60m indoors. In 2023, he returned to the track during the NFL offseason to run a 60-meter race at the USATF Masters Championships. He has also reportedly been in talks about racing Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles in the future.
Chuba Hubbard (Carolina Panthers)
The Canadian running back for the Carolina Panthers was one of the most improved players of the 2024-2025 season, setting career highs in touchdowns, yards, and carries. The 25-year-old’s ability to burst through defences and accelerate in just a few steps is no coincidence—it’s a skill he honed during his track and field career for Canada.
In 2015, at 16, Hubbard represented Canada in the 100m at the World Youth Championships (now recognized as U20) in Cali, Colombia. There, he clocked a personal best of 10.55 seconds in the 100m heats and narrowly missed out on a medal in the final, finishing fifth. The race was won by Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, who has since become a two-time Olympian and reached the final of the men’s 100m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The following year, Hubbard captured the U20 men’s 100m title at the 2016 Canadian Track and Field Championships in his hometown of Edmonton before heading to Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship.
Xavier Worthy (Kansas City Chiefs)
Fresno, Calif.’s Worthy is the lone player on this list who will be starting in Super Bowl LIX. Worthy was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024 as a wide-receiver replacement for Hill, who was traded to the Miami Dolphins from the Chiefs in 2022. Although Worthy didn’t run track in college, he broke records at the 2024 NFL Combine, running the fastest 40-yard dash (35.6 meters) time in NFL history at 4.21 seconds.
Worthy was a standout sprinter for Central High School in Fresno, reaching state championships in the 100m and 200m, where he recorded personal bests of 22.14 for 200m and 10.65 for 100m in 2019. As one of the fastest players in the NFL right now, it would be interesting to see what Worthy could achieve in a 200m race.
D.K. Metcalf (Seattle Seahawks)
Seattle Seahawks receiver D.K. Metcalf hasn’t shied away from the spotlight on and off the football field. In 2021, Metcalf competed at the USATF Golden Games at Mt. SAC in Walnut, Calif., in an effort to qualify for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials in the men’s 100m. Coming off an NFL season, Metcalf held his own but finished last in the 100m heat, running 10.36 seconds. While it is a decent time for a football player with a large frame, it is distant from the level of a professional sprinter.
Metcalf competed as a high hurdler in high school, but this was his first race in almost six years. He said after the race that he was humbled by the experience, calling the seven men who beat him “world-class athletes.” The 27-year-old hasn’t touched the track since.
Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders)
The 24-year-old quarterback out of Fontana, Calif., had an NFL rookie season to remember for the Washington Commanders. He was the first rookie starter in NFL history to reach the conference championships, setting a record for the most rushing yards by a rookie in the postseason (135 yards).
Daniels was a standout 400m runner in high school, running a personal best of 50.54 seconds for Cajun High School in San Bernardino, Calif., in Grade 11 before stopping track to focus on football in his senior year. He also had personal bests of 23.64 for 200m and 11.37 for 100m.
