[Stymie]

Interesting thread, and all you have to do is follow the money.....

Some of us are old enough to remember Bill Walsh turning a world-class long jumper and OK footballer at Stanford into a very good WR who went on to great success and serious riches in the NFL (James Lofton).  A few years later, when Walsh had moved to the 49ers, he signed the world-record holder in the 110M high hurdles (Renaldo Nemiah) as a wide receiver project.  In those days, track and field was (officially) an "amateur" sport, and IIRC Walsh said that Renaldo was earning ~$100k in "under the table" t&f payments then (late 1970's), so he offerred him $130k and Nemiah took it, and had a decent NFL career for a few years, probably earning much more money than he could take under the table in Basle and Singapore, et. al.

Jumping to today, why would any young man or woman with serious athletic ability choose t&f over football (or basketball or baseball, or even tennis?).  Outside of Hussain Bolt, how many runners and jumpers make a journeyman NFL/MLB/NBA salary.  Oor Toby just signed a 3-year deal for $10mm+ and he was just a situational/relief player for his past 3 years.  And, let's face it, t&f brings only red ink to the t&f programme at any serious DivI school.  They have expenses, but where is the income?  (Well, maybe if you are Oregon, the dark Knight might just help balance the books....).

Interestingly, this year our 2014 (FB) class has at least one guy (and there might be another) who just might be a great football player as well as a potential Olympic athlete.  If any one of them is good enough to eventually (say) do a few 100s in the 9.8-9.9 range and maybe make it to the Olympics, would he really want to go for it, if the alternative was to focus on football and get good enough to be drafted in round 2-3 and effectively fixed for life, financially?

I'd hate to be a t&f coach these days.....

[Stymie]

Interesting thread, and all you have to do is follow the money.....

Some of us are old enough to remember Bill Walsh turning a world-class long jumper and OK footballer at Stanford into a very good WR who went on to great success and serious riches in the NFL (James Lofton).  A few years later, when Walsh had moved to the 49ers, he signed the world-record holder in the 110M high hurdles (Renaldo Nemiah) as a wide receiver project.  In those days, track and field was (officially) an "amateur" sport, and IIRC Walsh said that Renaldo was earning ~$100k in "under the table" t&f payments then (late 1970's), so he offerred him $130k and Nemiah took it, and had a decent NFL career for a few years, probably earning much more money than he could take under the table in Basle and Singapore, et. al.

Jumping to today, why would any young man or woman with serious athletic ability choose t&f over football (or basketball or baseball, or even tennis?).  Outside of Hussain Bolt, how many runners and jumpers make a journeyman NFL/MLB/NBA salary.  Oor Toby just signed a 3-year deal for $10mm+ and he was just a situational/relief player for his past 3 years.  And, let's face it, t&f brings only red ink to the t&f programme at any serious DivI school.  They have expenses, but where is the income?  (Well, maybe if you are Oregon, the dark Knight might just help balance the books....).

Interestingly, this year our 2014 (FB) class has at least one guy (and there might be another) who just might be a great football player as well as a potential Olympic athlete.  If any one of them is good enough to eventually (say) do a few 100s in the 9.8-9.9 range and maybe make it to the Olympics, would he really want to go for it, if the alternative was to focus on football and get good enough to be drafted in round 2-3 and effectively fixed for life, financially?

I'd hate to be a t&f coach these days.....