Super Bowl 50 Kicked Off On High School Tracks


If the two teams' track credentials are any indication-and there's no reason they should be at all--the Super Bowl may be a bit closer than the six points that the Panthers are favored by. We exhaustively researched the high school and college track & field histories of every player on both teams. Here's what we found.

Almost exactly half of the players on both rosters* did track in high school. 30 of 62 Panthers were HS trackies, as were 31 of 60 Broncos. Three players on each team also ran in college. Broncos defensive backs Taurean Nixon and Lorenzo Doss were also track and football teammates at Tulane.





By far the best track & field athlete on either team is Panthers defensive back Teddy Williams, who didn't even play football in college. He focused on track & field at Texas-San Antonio, where he ran a wind-aided 9.90 seconds in the 100. His wind-legal 100 best was 10.03 seconds.

It should be no surprise that over half the track athletes will be lining up on the edges of the line of scrimmage, where the most speed in football is required. 32 of the wide receivers, tight ends, and defensive backs playing in the Super Bowl ran track in high school.









The other half of the track athletes playing on Sunday are divided roughly evenly between running backs (six), offensive (six) and defensive linemen (eight), and linebackers (eight). There is one notable exception, though, and it's a doozy. Panthers kicker Graham Gano was a legitimately excellent sprinter in high school, covering 100 in 10.55 and 200 in 21.70 as a Florida teenager in the early 2000s.


It should be no surprise, then, that the vast majority of our track studs were sprinters and/or jumpers. Out of the 61, 46 competed in sprints/jumps, 14 in the throws... and one single solitary distance runner. Panthers defensive end Arthur Miley ran a 2:09 800 at the Louisiana state meet in 2011.

Who shone the most in their respective events, other than the world-class Williams? The Broncos' best track athletes were wide receiver Andre Caldwell, safety David Bruton, Jr., cornerback Kayvon Webster, and center Max Garcia. Caldwell ran the 100 in 10.39, Webster ran 10.40 and 21.56, and Garcia tossed the shot 54-2. Webster sprinted for South Florida, where he was a Big East runner-up in the 60 meters and finalist in the 100. Garcia was one of four Broncos lineman to throw the shot over fifty feet; fellow O-linemen Evan Mathis and Ryan Clady and defensive end Kenny Anunike also used their strength and technique to push people and throw heavy things.

There's a bit of a stereotype that the Panthers' wide receivers are fast guys who can't catch, and there's certainly something to the first part of that. Ted Ginn, Jr. ran 21.16 in the 200 and 46.57 in the 400 in high school; Philly Brown ran 10.54 in the 100; and most impressively, Stephen Hill broke Olympic gold medalist Christian Taylor's Georgia state record in the long jump with a leap of 25 feet, 8 inches. Tight end Greg Olsen was pretty good, though maybe not in the event you'd predict--he threw the shot put 59-1. 

Here's the full documentation of every Super Bowler's track history.



*We went off the list on ESPN.com, which includes some players on injured reserve.