Todd Gurley: Princeton, Cornell Recruited Me for Track After Team USA Qualifying

Todd Gurley's highlight reel was almost filled with laps on a track rather than offensive snaps. 

In an appearance on the Truss Levelz podcast with Cam Jordan and Mark Ingram, the Atlanta Falcons running back revealed that he was recruited to run track at Cornell and Princeton after he taught himself to run hurdles and qualified for Team USA.

Gurley said (around the 3:40 mark) one a track coach he knew invited him to a race in South Carolina that was—unbeknownst to him—a national team-qualifying event. 

"I guess that was like the pre-trial to qualify for the USA team," Gurley said. "Bro, I did not know! And, I end up winning. And they was like, 'All right, you got your passport? All right, we 'bout to go to Italy for a whole week.'"

He traveled to Italy with Team USA, though he didn't place in any of his races with the team. Gurley did catch the eye of some Ivy League schools, however, which he said sounded like a great option at first: "I'm a kid, I'm in the hood, I'm in North Carolina, nobody makes it to an Ivy League school [from here]. I was like, 'Yeah I'm definitely going here.'"

In the end, he decided to stick with football and headed to the University of Georgia, where the St. Louis Rams drafted him out of in 2015.

But his national team-worthy speed remained, with Gurley ranked as one of the most explosive runners in the league for the 2019 season after he ran at least 15 mph on almost 20 percent of his rushing attempts.