Noah Lyles became the Olympic champion at the 2024 Paris Games, where he edged out Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by a fraction of a second. Ever since that day, NFL speedster Tyreek Hill has been jawing at the gold medalist.
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Lucky for the Cheetah, Lyles doesn’t play football, or they might have met on the gridiron for a head-to-head showdown. Imagine Lyles lining up as a cornerback against the wideout. That would be some matchup. But really, why doesn’t Noah play football?
Well, it’s because of his mother, Keisha Caine. On Cam Newton’s Funky Friday podcast, Lyles gave an honest reason why he was never allowed to play football growing up, and to be fair, it’s a pretty understandable one.
“I wasn’t allowed to [play tackle football]. Mom didn’t want no concussions; she didn’t want no broken bones. She didn’t want none of that stuff,” Lyles revealed.
So now we know why the NFL world didn’t get to witness the speedster dominating the field on Sundays. And there’s more — even his brother wasn’t allowed to play tackle football.
“It’s crazy because I think my brother could have probably been like the greatest wide receiver ever,” Noah added about his sibling, Josephus Lyles, who is also a professional sprinter and has represented the United States in several events.
Noah Lyles went against the track world to challenge Tyreek Hill
Tyreek has a history of bad-mouthing Olympic sprinters. He did it first with the retired champion Usain Bolt, and now he’s doing the same with the young gun, Noah Lyles.
But Lyles isn’t the one to take it lying down. He’s very much interested in racing Tyreek because this will not only uphold his dignity but also reinforce the dominance of the track world over NFL athletes.
“So many people are so like against it in the track world because it’s like, ‘Why would you demean yourself to that? Why would you like to put yourself down to their level?'” Lyles said.
“If we’re over here trying to prove that we’re the fastest people in the world, but we only race other track people, how are they going to really know how fast we are?” he added.
Noah then said he wants to show his fans how fast he really is by racing Hill, who has recorded 23.3 mph on the field with a ball in his hands while fully padded.
“If Tyreek is your best guy, let me come on. I’ll whoop your b*tt real quick. I’ll show you’d be over in the first five meters, probably in the first three steps.”
Noah was dead serious about making a statement by beating Tyreek Hill. It seems he wants to fulfill his football dreams on the track itself by taking on one of their best.
