IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

NFL player's 25-mph treadmill run wows Internet

Watch your back, Usain Bolt.Robert Gill, a rookie football wide receiver with the Arizona Cardinals, can run at speeds approaching the Olympic sprinter's best, and he has the video to prove it. A clip showing Gill running 25 miles per hour on a treadmill that was posted on YouTube on June 25 has garnered nearly 2,000,000 views. Bolt, the fastest man in the world and reigning Olympic 100-meter cham

Watch your back, Usain Bolt.

Robert Gill, a rookie football wide receiver with the Arizona Cardinals, can run at speeds approaching the Olympic sprinter's best, and he has the video to prove it. A clip showing Gill running 25 miles per hour on a treadmill that was posted on YouTube on June 25 has garnered nearly 2,000,000 views.

Bolt, the fastest man in the world and reigning Olympic 100-meter champion, topped out at 27.78 mph when he set the current 100-meter record by finishing in 9.58 seconds in Berlin in 2009.

Gill jogged at 10 mph while chatting with Savannah Guthrie and Willie Geist about his feat on TODAY Wednesday.

“When you're running with speed, you've got to push yourself to the limit, so that's what I do,’’ he said. “When you run as fast as I do, you want to push yourself to the limit to go faster, so 25 miles per hour was the next level for me.’’

Robert Gill, running at a 25-mph clip on the YouTube video that has gone viral.
Robert Gill, running at a 25-mph clip on the YouTube video that has gone viral.Today

Gill’s blazing speed prompted the Cardinals to give the former Arena Football League player a three-year contract at the advanced age, football-wise, of 29. Entering June, he was the oldest rookie on any team's roster in the NFL. Gill only played one year of high school football and was more known as a point guard in basketball and a runner specializing in the 400-meter event during stints at a junior college and Texas State University.

In addition to his treadmill exploits, Gill has been clocked at a blazing 4.19 seconds in the 40-yard dash. That would've tied the fastest time of any player at this year's NFL combine before the NFL draft.

“Speed kills,’’ he said. “The Arizona Cardinals fell in love with speed, so I'm going to make the most of it this year.’’

Gill’s video even prompted a response from former NFL wideout and reality TV star Chad Johnson, who posted his own treadmill video on YouTube showing him running 24 miles per hour on an incline.

How fast humans can run is up for debate. Stanford biologist Mark Denny told Popular Science he believes the fastest is 9.48 seconds in a 100-meter race, 0.10 faster than Bolt’s record. Peter Weyand, a biomechanics professor at Southern Methodist University, believes it’s possible for a human to run in the low 9s for 100 meters, according to the magazine.

The fastest human still would get lapped by the fastest land mammal, the adult cheetah, which can run 100 meters in less than six seconds.