re: Cannon's run question...

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I'm sure he was awesome and fast as shite. I just have a tough time believing he was running near Olympic-like times. I can't find any actual times results on the internet.

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He won the SEC in the 100 yard dash. Go to SECSports.com and look it up. No regular running back has done it since. I'm not sure any RB had done it before.

He could have competed in the Olympics in strength events, because he was that strong.

He was the closest thing in CFB to Bo Jackson before the actual Bo Jackson.

He made All-Pro as a RB very early in his career, then blew out his knees, got made TE, and made All-Pro at that position too.

People just see that he's white and from the 50's and make all kinds of assumptions about him, but nobody ever says those same things about Jesse Owens or Jim Brown or Muhammad Ali. Kinda weird, don't you think?

I get that the population of American youth is greater now than it was 50 years ago, but it's not THAT much greater. The best guy out of a million athletes 50 years ago is still going to be pretty damn good out of 2-3 million athletes today--unless human evolution has just been drastically condensed or something.

Cannon held the pro record for total yards in a game for over 30 yards. He was the number 1 pick in both the NFL and AFL - both of which were integrated. He was all pro at 2 positions playing in the same era as Jim Brown and Gale Sayers. And yet some wonder if he would have gotten a schollie today? Sheez.

The real question is whether Cannon could have thrown a football over them mountains.

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He is probably the only tight end that could not bend down to catch a pass at his knees when he made All-Pro.

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Probably so.
A little more to the story:
Cannon had an uncommon combination of brute strength with the speed of a sprinter. A track and field coach is reported to have remarked during his college career that he could have lost 15 pounds and won the Olympic gold in the 100 meter dash, or gained 15 pounds and won the Olympic gold in the shotput.

Billy Cannon is one of 20 players who played the entire ten years of the American Football League's existence. He is also one of 13 players to score 5 touchdowns in one game, and also holds the Oilers/Titans franchise record for most points (30) and most touchdowns (5) in a single game.

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Two, Cannon's fastest 100 yard dash was a hand-timed 9.4. That converts to about a 10.37, electronically times 100m. While that's not setting the world on fire, it would be comparable to what most of our skill athletes would run. Also, Cannon carried some size and lots of strength with that speed - over 6' and he played at LSU at about 205 to 208 pounds

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WRONG! 10.39 for 100m is FAST. PP is probably the only player on the roster over 200 lbs. capable of doing it. 4.4 in the 40 doesn't convert to 10.4 100m.

I was there in the south upper deck directly above the visitor section near where the tunnel is. He got the ball in that corner of the field and ran north.

not to mention he could whip your arse!

I was there - I was sitting in the north end zone in line with the east hash marks.

He definitely ran south-->north.

ive met 2 guys that were on the field for ole miss when he made the run (they both were starters on the defense). we were sitting at ernst cafe drinking a beer and their response about him was "that was the fastest white boy we had ever seen"