How to watch Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf try to earn a spot at the Olympic Trials
Guess we'll find out how fast he really is.
[UPDATE] Metcalf finished ninth — last — in his heat but ran a very respectable 10.36 and certainly did not look out of place.
You know DK Metcalf is NFL fast. His downfield speed allowed him to become pretty much the perfect wide receiver for Russell Wilson last season, as he caught 83 passes for 1,303 yards.
Now Metcalf wants to test himself against the fastest sprinters the United States has to offer and has opted to run in the USATF Golden Games today in hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Trials in June.
Our Charles Curtis has already produced an exhaustive look at what we think we know about how fast Metcalf can actually be.
Track athletes, as USA TODAY’s Tom Schad reported, are excited to face Metcalf and presumably dispel the notion, once and for all, that any football player truly has “track speed.”
It’s not that they don’t believe Metcalf is a world-class athlete; they just know he hasn’t been practicing the specific skills needed to win this race as much, or as long, as they have. Here he is working on his start:
First look at @NFL wide receiver & athletic phenom, DK Metcalf, ahead of his 100 meter race tomorrow! I think he’ll hold his own.
What y’all think? pic.twitter.com/d6ZhfOOWzK
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) May 8, 2021
I’m the furthest thing from a track expert, but you can see here that, from this position, Metcalf appears to lack that elite burst you’d get from the best of the best.
Still, it’s going to be thrilling to watch him give it a try, right? Metcalf is scheduled to run in the 100m prelims, which start at 3:32 ET.
NBC has coverage of the event, so you have a few streaming options:
Metcalf didn’t run track in college and it’s not entirely clear how much training he’s done for this race, so he’s clearly an underdog. According to NBC, a 10.44 was good enough to advance to the finals in a similar recent meet. Metcalf, based on his 4.33 40-yard dash at the combine, could come close to that.
If Metcalf does make it, that race is scheduled for 5:03 and would be broadcast on NBC, and could be streamed via the following:
Metcalf needs a 10.05 to automatically qualify for the trials, but NBC says anything under a 10.20 would likely be good enough.
Hitting either of those marks would be amazing for Metcalf. And even if he doesn’t, he’s still very, very fast.
Budda Baker with the HUGE INT and a 90-yard return! #RedSea @Buddabaker32
: #SEAvsAZ on NBC
: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/FSTZl0ocgC pic.twitter.com/zErIeXiklE
— NFL (@NFL) October 26, 2020
(You didn’t honestly think you’d get through this post without seeing this highlight, right?)