Bills: Marquise Goodwin More Interested In Track Than Football
A two-sport athlete in college, Goodwin has decided to spend more time this offseason training for the Rio Olympics than preparing for the Bills 2016 season.
Marquise Goodwin wants to have his cake and eat it too, or more specifically, he wants to win a gold medal while also remaining a professional football player.
Prior to being drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 2013 (third round, 78th overall), Goodwin was a promising long jumper having competed in the 2012 London Olympic games. Disappointed with a tenth place finish at the Games, the Rowlett, Texas native, left the sandpit behind him for three years before ultimately returning to the sport in 2015, first competing in the U.S championships and then later, in the Pan Am Games in Toronto, winning a silver medal.
Currently, the 25-year-old is practicing his football teams mantra for this season, except, he’s ‘all in’ for track and field, and not football. The fourth-year player has put the Bills on the back burner this offseason, instead focusing completely on earning an opportunity to compete in Rio.
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During a recent Facebook Live chat with Emily Kaplan of MMQB, the Olympic hopeful was asked by a fan which sport he would choose to play if forced to pick: football or track and field?
“I would definitely do track and field, man,” said Goodwin. “Football was my opportunity to advance my life, kind of get a head start on life and kind of put my family in a position to where they wouldn’t want for as much. I felt like track and field wouldn’t grant me that opportunity, being that I had a greater chance at making the amount of money that I do playing football, as opposed to going to track and field, and I would make it a lot sooner.
“Not saying I wouldn’t make it in track and field, but I would make it pretty much at a guaranteed rate in football.”
Its’ true, given his speed — a blazing 4.27 in the 40-yard dash at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine — it was essentially guaranteed that Goodwin would be given a chance to play in the NFL, but now as he enters the final year of his rookie contract nothing is guaranteed, even his spot on the roster.
A victim of his own decision, as well as the Olympic calendar, the dual-sport athlete may have just picked the worst possible time to ignore his bread and butter. Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods have allocated spots, but the other receivers on the roster are all battling for positions behind them on the depth chart.
Goodwin, who says he’s in better shape now than he ever was while training exclusively for football, has missed all of the Bills offseason acitivities thus far, will likely miss most of training camp and possibly even the first preseason game. He may be a veteran, but he’s losing out on valuable practice reps, opportunities that his teammates will surely take advantage of in his absence, like what Dezmin Lewis has done this spring.
Furthermore, in three seasons with the Bills, Goodwin really hasn’t stood out, amassing just 20 receptions for 349 yards and three touchdowns in his career. He’s never developed into the return threat that the Bills were hoping for and worst of all, he’s been hurt constantly, failing each season to play a full 16 games — twice being placed on injured reserve.
There’s a real possibility that Goodwin could be cut before the regular season begins and that the chance he’s taking with the Olympics may be his downfall. Either way, he should be commended because he’s trying accomplish something that hasn’t been done in the league since Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders did it back in the 90s: play two sports professionally.
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How do you feel about Marquise Goodwin pushing to compete in the Olympics? Do you think the Bills should be patient with him, or should they part ways with him and free up space for someone else? Let us know in the comments section below.