Tyreek Hill, the NFL’s fastest player, challenges Noah Lyles, the world’s fastest man, to a race
Some of the fastest dudes on the planet sure love to run at the mouth.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill responded Monday to a meandering comment Noah Lyles made a year ago by challenging the U.S. Olympic gold medalist sprinter to a race.
“I would beat Noah Lyles,” Hill said on the “Up & Adams” podcast. “I’m not going to beat him by a lot, but I would beat Noah Lyles.”
Hill was told by podcast host Kay Adams that Lyles had said Super Bowl champions should not consider themselves world champions. “What do you think of that?” she asked, not mentioning that Lyles made the comment in August 2023, after the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
U.S. basketball player Devin Booker watched Noah Lyles win Olympic gold in the 100 meters. That doesn’t mean he’s changed his mind about the sprinter’s NBA comments.
Lyles is hardly the first person to wonder aloud why various U.S. sports leagues crown “world” champions. But he did so after becoming the first man since Usain Bolt to complete a triple at world championships with wins in the 100- and 200-meter events and as a member of the 4x100 relay.
His point was that his accomplishment came in competition between athletes representing numerous countries, making the event a true world championship.
“You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what?” said Lyles, who calls himself the “World’s Fastest Man.” “The United States? Don’t get me wrong — I love the U.S. at times, but that ain’t the world.”
Lyles won gold in the 100 at the Paris Olympics before struggling to win bronze in the 200 because he said he’d tested positive for COVID. He collapsed after the race and was taken off the track in a wheelchair.
Noah Lyles reportedly was diagnosed with COVID on Tuesday and couldn’t muster a gold-medal performance in the men’s 200 meters at the Paris Olympics.
Hill, who won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020, took the bait on the podcast, all but saying not so fast, Lyles.
“Noah Lyles can’t say nothing after just what happened to him,” Hill said. “He wants to come out and pretend that he’s sick. I feel that’s like horseradish. For him to do that and say that, that we’re not world champions of our sport? Come on brother, speak on what you know about, and that’s track.”
Hill, a five-time All-Pro considered the fastest player in the NFL, grinned and couldn’t help but add a zinger.
“When I beat him, I’ll put on a COVID mask,” said Hill, whose nickname is “Cheetah.” “Because I mean business.”
Immediately after the men’s Olympic 100 meters finished, another race started, among officials, that decided Noah Lyles had earned Paris gold.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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