Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
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LINK 2TAMPA, Fla. - Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin, facing a track and field suspension of up to eight years for failing a drug test last summer, is trying to launch a career in pro football as a wide receiver with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"If (his speed) can transfer to football, you have a real threat," Bucs Coach Jon Gruden said. "If it can't, then it won't work."
Gatlin, who is participating in the Bucs' rookie minicamp this weekend, said he last played football during his freshman year at Tennessee. He then concentrated on track, winning the 100 meters at the 2004 Athens Olympics and equaling the world record of Jamaica's Asafa Powell at 9.77 seconds.
"This is where I want to be," Gatlin said. "I didn't come here on my high horse, all mighty, and saying give me a locker and let me do what I want to do. I'm starting from the ground up, and that's where I want to start."
Gatlin said he worked out with Arizona and Houston. The Bucs have been the only team to bring him in for a formal workout. The team will decide after this weekend whether to sign Gatlin and bring him back for the club's next minicamp.
Gatlin faces the suspension following a positive test for testosterone and other steroids at the Kansas Relays last April. His appeal is pending and he said Friday that he has not given up hope of resuming his career as a sprinter.
In the meantime, he will try to make the transition from fastest man in the world to football - as Bob Hayes did more than four decades ago.
DOWNSIDE - Brock Lesnar with the Vikings.UPSIDE - Renaldo Nehemiah with the Niners.TAMPA - He's the fastest man in the world.
When he arrived for his long-shot tryout with the Buccaneers this weekend, he was stopped by a fan: Jon Gruden.
"I have two autographed visors," Gruden said.
That doesn't mean the fastest man in the world gets an NFL job. He played some football in 10th grade at his Pensacola high school and some spring ball at the University of Tennessee. That's it.
Justin Gatlin, the fastest man in the world, needs a job.
Three years ago, he was draped in an American flag at the Olympic Stadium in Athens after winning a gold medal in the 100 meters. He won two other medals in Athens. He appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" wearing all three.
Now his face is hidden by a football helmet. He's just a number - a receiver's number. He is searching for believers, trying to outrace his past. There's nowhere to run.
"I don't feel like a fallen star," Gatlin said. "I feel like a crippled star in a way."
Last April, Justin Gatlin tested positive for "testosterone or its precursor." He faces an eight-year ban from the track for agreeing to the accuracy of the results. Gatlin is appealing the length of the suspension. He's 25. Eight years is all but a death sentence.
The fastest man in the world is trying to catch a football.
Gatlin contacted the Bucs, not the other way around.
Running pass routes isn't easy.
"Stopping and going," Gatlin said. "I'm used to just … going."
"We made sure we threw the deep balls with the wind," Gruden said.
Two years ago, Gatlin swept the 100 and 200 meters at the world championships. A year ago next Saturday, he equaled the world record in the 100 meters with a 9.77 clocking. We assume the co-record holder, Jamaica's Asafa Powell, will be at the next Bucs camp.
Gatlin's NFL tryout feels like a gimmick. He previously auditioned for Houston and Arizona. No go. But Gruden will give Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense a shot before he phones Keyshawn.
And there's no getting around Gatlin's aura.
As Gatlin understated, "To walk into a room and say, 'I'm faster than anybody in this room,' it feels good."
The room has a circumference of 25,000 miles. There are 6.5 billion people in the room.
But if there's aura, there's also odor.
The fastest man in the world smells dirty.
The fastest man in the world is in limbo.
"It's hard," Gatlin said. "Because you put your heart into it, you put your life into it."
He tested positive at a meet in Kansas last April. The B sample was confirmed as positive last July.
While at Tennessee, Gatlin tested positive for an amphetamine and was banned from international competition for two years, though it was never enforced because it was a prescribed drug for attention deficit disorder that Gatlin had taken since he was young.
But this is different. Throw in Gatlin's coach, the infamous Trevor Graham, who has had several athletes suspended for performance-enhancing drugs.
Gatlin maintains that he never knowingly used performance enhancers. He has pointed to his clean Olympics, world championships and world record.
Facing a lifetime ban, Gatlin agreed to the accuracy of the latest test to get a shorter suspension and is appealing the eight-year stretch. He dreams of proving he's clean. He dreams of being at next year's U.S. trials for the Beijing Olympics.
"So we'll just wait and see and cross our fingers," Gatlin said.
And go deep.
"You've got to work your way up in a sport like this," Gatlin said. "Fastest man in the world, world record, Olympic champion, that don't mean nothing."
He smiled. It's a winning smile. Maybe that's why some people still pull for him and hope he isn't dirty.
After his fall, Gatlin returned to Pensacola, where he was a legend - and five-time state champion - at Woodham High. He joined Woodham's track and field team as a volunteer coach.
The team did well at this year's state meet. Gatlin says four Woodham runners will go to college on track scholarships. He says he is as proud of them as he is of his Athens gold.
"When you see an athlete of any kind, any caliber, put their hearts out there, it's magic, pure magic."
He thinks about kids - and his ban.
"It's more of an embarrassment than anything, because a lot of kids still come up to me, still want my autograph. I don't want them to think, OK, I did all this."
Jon Gruden didn't make Justin Gatlin run a 40-yard dash. Would you make Mozart play chopsticks? But Gatlin has been timed before.
"4.1," he said.
Some football guys would love to test the fastest man in the world. Gruden wouldn't mind Gatlin against Bucs fly guy Joey Galloway.
"I'll line up," Justin Gatlin said.
There's no one else to race.
