Other than the word ‘football’, you would be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t a huge amount that the sports played by Premier League and the National Football League teams have in common.
Certainly it is unlikely that ‘soccer’ fans are going to spend a huge amount of time watching the NFL and vice versa. Yet the big things that the two leagues do have in common with one another is that the players that play in them are amongst the best in the world at their sport and are at a top level of fitness. The question is, which players are faster?
Not All Players Were Created Equal
The first thing that it’s important to point out when it comes to both American football and the game that Yanks would call ‘soccer’ is that not all players are built to do the same job. A central defender in a football team should be big and bulky, with their strength the most important attribute that they have available to them.
Whilst some will be able to put a sprint on if necessary, it really isn’t what they’re there for. Similarly, in the world of the NFL, players in the offensive line are not really there to do quick sprints, instead tasked with blocking the defensive line of the opposition in order to protect their own team’s quarterback.
With this in mind, it would be unfair to compare certain positions as if they are equal to one another. You’re likely to find that strikers are amongst the fastest players in the Premier League, whilst returners are almost certainly going to be in the conversation for the fastest players in a National Football League team.
Tasked with playing as wide receivers or cornerbacks most of the time, they need to catch the ball that has been sent their way by the quarterback and demonstrate a quick turn of pace to make it into the EndZone and register a touchdown. It would be fairer to compare those positions than any others in either sport.
They Also Run Differently
If you were looking to place a wager on the NFL betting lines or the outcome of a Premier League match, ne of the things that you might look at is how the players on the various teams tend to run. In the NFL, players are built to cover a short distance with a sharp burst of pace, whereas football players need to be engaged in longer bouts of action in a high-intensity manner.
In other words, an NFL player might be able to beat a footballer in a 100 metre race, but a footballer would almost certainly come out on top of you stretched that out to 200 metres or further. Even so, some footballers have a bit of pace about them.
😳 Pure. Speed. 😳@_fournette goes 9⃣0⃣ – yes, NINETY – yards for the touchdown and the @Jaguars WIN!#JAXvsPIT | #WinToday pic.twitter.com/vZFFdhFLW1
— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) October 8, 2017
Although not a Premier League player, Kylian Mbappe’s registered speed of 38kmph during a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco in the 2018-2019 season. That gives us a sense of how the quickest footballer can perform. Compare and contrast that with the 35.49kmph that Leonard Fournette registered for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017 and you can see that it isn’t exactly night and day.
It is also only fair to point out that Fournette had about 15 pounds of protective gear on. That being said, he was carrying the ball whilst Mbappe was having to dribble it with his fee, perhaps making it even.
So Who’s the Fastest?
In some ways, asking which sport has the fastest players is like comparing apples to oranges. Even so, during the 2019-2020 season we know that Allan Saint-Maximin hit a top speed of 36.69kmph whilst playing or Newcastle United. Bjorn Engels ran at 36.85kmph and Kyle Walker matched him.
Meanwhile, Christian Watson hit a speed of 34.95kmph when playing for the Green Bay Packers, with DeSean Jackson matching him as the wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens. When Parris Campbell was playing the same position for the Indianapolis Colts, he reached speeds of 35.58kmph. Shall we call it a draw?