● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
With Olympic 100 m champion Noah Lyles and Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill agreeing to race somewhere, at some unknown distance, sometime in 2025, the build-up has started.
After months of trash-talking on social media, the two agreed to race in an online interview with People Magazine, posted last week, with Hill wanting to run a 40-yard dash – his best chance to win – and Lyles preferring something closer to his regular 100 m distance, although he said:
“I mean if it was 100-meters, it’d be a blowout, you know, we gotta meet in the middle.”
And then the sniping continued.
Lyles posted, “It’s time to end the debate,” to which Hill replied, “Time to shut your mouth and take your lunch money,” and later, “Track world about to be in shambles.”
Vernon Norwood, fourth in the 2023 World Championships 400 m and a two-time Olympic 4×400 m relay gold medalist, posted in reply, “Hell nah! You fast but you food.” Hill shot back, “I got a NFL guy that whoop you to [sic].”
A Lyles post on Friday read, “A man asked me at the airport how do I have so much confidence. I told him therapy. He said really? Why would I lie” to which Hill wrote, “you have no friends.”
This is only the start; both are already promoting the race on their social sites:
While Lyles, 27, has run 6.43 for the 60 m and 9.79 for the 100 – both in 2024 – star receiver Hill, now 30, hasn’t posted any results since 2014, when he was at Oklahoma State. He was no slouch, with bests of 6.64 for 60 m indoors (2014), 10.19 for the 100 and 20.14 for the 200, both in 2012. Hill was the 2012 World Junior Championships 200 m bronze medalist, but he’s not in Lyles’ class.
Let’s see what could actually be arranged:
● Lyles is focused on defending his 100 and 200 m World Championships golds in Tokyo (JPN) in September and to do that, he needs to make the U.S. team. The USA Track & Field nationals in 2025 are in Eugene, Oregon (of course) from 31 July to 2 August, so the race has to be well before then.
Lyles is not signed to the Grand Slam Track circuit, so he has no announced commitments during the spring season.
● Hill said at the end of the season he wanted to leave Miami, but now says he would like to stay. If he does stay, off-season workouts begin on 21 April, but if he were to be traded, he could end up on a team with a new head coach, with workouts beginning 7 April.
NFL “organized team activities” are held in late May or early June, depending on the team and mandatory mini-camps are held for three days in June. NFL training camps open on 16 July, although some clubs may start a few days later.
So Hill has some conflicts, but has time in late April and early May – pretty early for Lyles – and in mid-June to mid-July, when Lyles should be more than ready.
Assuming Hill stays with the Dolphins, he’s in south Florida and Lyles is also in Florida, so somewhere there makes the most sense. There are lots of options, depending on the distance and the number of spectators to be accommodated (got to have that ticket revenue).
So what about the distance?
Since Hill is a football player, the appropriate distance for him should be 100 yards, the length of a football field. The distance isn’t run any more, but Jamaica’s Asafa Powell has the fastest time on record at 9.07, en route to a 100 m win in 2010. Justin Gatlin has the American best at 9.10 en route in 2014. The fastest ever by a football player is 9.33 by Johnny “Lam” Jones for Texas in 1977, and the great Bob Hayes – yes, the 1964 Tokyo Olympic champion and NFL Hall of Fame receiver – ran 9.35 in 1962!
Hill probably would say that he’s not a distance runner any more, so the 100 yards is likely out. Unless the two want to come up with some oddball distance, the remaining suspects are the rarely-contested 50 yards, 50 m, 60 yards (or 55 m) and the now-standard 60 m:
● 50 yards: 5.22 world best by Stanley Floyd (USA) in 1982, who broke Houston McTear’s 5.25 mark from 1978. This event disappeared in the early 1990s.
● 50 meters: 5.56 world best by Donovan Bailey (CAN: 1996) and Maurice Greene (USA: 1999) and is rarely seen now.
● 60 yards: 5.99 world best for 55 m (five inches more) by Obadele Thompson (BAR: 1997) with Lee McRae (USA: 1986) next at 6.00. Carl Lewis ran 6.02 for the fastest-ever 60 yards in 1983.
● 60 meters: 6.34 world record by Christian Coleman (USA: 2018) and he has the top four performances in history at 6.34-6.37-6.37-6.37.
Hill’s only chance is to get out quick, at a shorter distance, but Lyles is used to being behind and will win no matter what the choice is (unless he falls down). But 60 yards is a respectable, historic distance and one from which Hill has scored many touchdowns.
Now, how much are the tickets and what’s the hospitality package like? Lyles has said he wants to add races, with Coleman to race against, say, speedy Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy – the fastest man ever at the NFL Combined – and maybe hurdles champ Grant Holloway against Seahawks star DK Metcalf.
And let’s not forget about television, whether on cable or streaming or … pay per view?
No matter how this is staged, it’s good for track & field. Why? Consider that in today’s self-promoting world, reach is key. Lyles, with all his outstanding accomplishments, has 196,016 followers on X and 1.563 million on Instagram.
Hill won a Super Bowl with Kansas City and has been a five-time first-team All-Pro selection, and has 999,574 X followers and 2.766 million on Instagram. And now Lyles is all over Hill’s feed.
That’s all part of this. May the best video clip or Instagram Reel win.
~ Rich Perelman
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