Suggesting track and field doesn’t help football players is ridiculous | Opinion

We can all appreciate the power of a fairy tale.

When I was a kid — and in retrospect — immersing yourself in cartoons such as “Masters of the Universe,” “Voltron” or “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was something you did, never giving thought to the distortion of reality.

When I’m with my 5-year-old today, she watches cartoons rooted in princesses such as “Elena of Avalor” who were locked in magic amulets, “Peppa Pig” and ... don’t get me started on how odd “Yo Gabba Gabba” appears to adults.

Ultimately, fairy tales are pure fantasy.

And in a high school sports sense, here is a fairy tale and a distortion of reality we should challenge with all our might:

Track and field does not help football players.

It’s a living arrangement that’s getting better, but there is still pushback in this day and age between football and the rest of the athletic program, especially for track and field.

We still have football coaches — in 2018 — telling athletes they shouldn’t compete in track and field. Instead, their time and energy should be devoted to lifting and becoming a better football player.

That kind of archaic, silly, primitive, foolish, obsolete thinking really should have a place among the fairy tales of old and should be delivered with a club and chisel in hand because they’re coming from a caveman.

Football is king — we all know that. Entirely from an athletic standpoint, nothing drives a school and community in pride, prominence and — let’s be honest, dollars and cents — quite like football.

It is important to field the best football team possible. But that quest should not come at the expense of other sports to the point of sole focus.

The studies are prevalent about the dangers of specialization and the wear and tear it can have on a young athlete mentally and physically.

What better place to increase explosiveness, speed, power and agility than in track and field with the events it offers?

If athletes, on their own volition and without it hampering an honest pursuit of track and field, want to lift in addition to their spring sport, so be it.

But we have seen instances in which football players are not only discouraged from participating in other sports, they are essentially told to keep conditioning regularly for football in addition to their non-fall sports — and it inhibits their performance in those sports.

So I ask football players around our area:

If you’re a thrower, and you happen to be a lineman, do you find yourself more nimble from the power and fine art of shot put and discus?

If you’re a jumper, and you happen to be a wide receiver or defensive back, are you more fluid in your motion because of the rhythmic steps and takeoff required to be a great high jumper or long jumper?

If you’re a sprinter, and you happen to be a running back or safety, are you more explosive in open space and bursting through the line on a trap play because of your 100 and 200 blockwork and drive phase?

If so, say it — tell everyone who will listen so we can battle philosophy seemingly rooted in the 19th century to extinction.

From our area, think of some of our great gridiron standouts. I once told Kareem Hunt after he competed at Ranger Relays one year I thought he would be a great college track and field athlete in sprints and jumps if football didn’t work out after South. It did, obviously, much to the Chiefs’ delight, but that would have been a Plan B. Jerome Baker, before Ohio State and the Dolphins, was a great sprinter at Benedictine. Justin Layne was a skilled long jumper and could lengthen to 400 from sprints at Benedictine before he went to Michigan State.

I have long said the best Greater Cleveland boys track and field athlete I have ever seen is Ted Ginn Jr. There is no doubt in my mind, had the NFL not worked out, Ginn Jr. would have been an Olympic hurdler — him in 110s at Glenville was a work of art.

Out of curiosity, I studied the first two rounds of the NFL draft last month. Of the 64 players drafted, 23 were track and field athletes in high school.

Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (Alabama) was a state qualifier in 100 and long jump in New Jersey. Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds (Virginia Tech) was a 200 and 400 state champion in Virginia. Jaguars defensive tackle Taven Bryan (Florida) was a state discus champion in Wyoming. Falcons cornerback Isaiah Oliver (Colorado) was a five-time state qualifier in hurdles and two-time state champion in Arizona. Colts guard Braden Smith (Auburn) swept throws in his division two straight years in Kansas. Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson (LSU) repeated in 100 and 200 his last two years in Louisiana.

Bengals center Billy Price (Ohio State), in his Austintown-Fitch days, is one of the best shot putters I’ve ever seen.

Now on the Browns, Denzel Ward (Ohio State) was a load at Nordonia in the spring, too — he was the Division I 200 state champion in 2015 and a two-time long jump qualifier. Nick Chubb (Georgia) got on the podium in sprints in Georgia.

Were they any worse off heading to the NFL because they participated in track and field in high school? Ask the people who would know.

Ask football players who have taken that step. Ask football coaches who get more well-rounded athletes after track and field season.

Ask one of the country’s most famous athletes.

“I can’t stand that when they make them pick at an early age,” Tim Tebow told me when asked about sports specialization when he was recently in Akron with Double-A Binghamton. “I think being able to play as many sports as you can and as you want to and learning how to compete, how to win, how to adapt when you go from one season to the next, I think you grow.

“I think the kids that just play one sport all year long eventually get burned out, and they’re using the same muscles over and over again that their body just wears down and deteriorates instead of adapting and growing. And so I encourage kids to play as many sports as they want. Don’t specialize at too young of an age.”

Tim Tebow is right.

We can all appreciate the power of a fairy tale.

But there are some worth fighting against for the power of truth instead.