Bob Hayes question for the oldies

[JW82]

I am old, but not old enough to have seen the Bullet play. Did his play resemble what Tarik Hill is doing today? Hill is easily the fastest player I have ever seen, curious if Bob was making world class athletes look slow too.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Bullet was ahead of his time. There was nobody in the league at the time with anything close to his raw speed. Hill is impressive but certainly nothing we haven’t seen before. Hayes was something the league had literally never seen before.

 

[Mark]

You can judge for yourself:

 

[pitt33]

He was a game changer in the sense that the zone defense came about because of him. No one could stay with him.

And he was a track man with great hands.

 

[Brax]

I am old, but not old enough to have seen the Bullet play. Did his play resemble what Tarik Hill is doing today? Hill is easily the fastest player I have ever seen, curious if Bob was making world class athletes look slow too.

Bob was so far ahead of the passing game the DCs came up with zone coverage to stop him. The league was run oriented then but Bob was game changer and when you look at his numbers especially ypc it’s unbelievable for back then. Roger Staubach once said he couldn’t overthrow Bob. He was also a unbelievable punt returner.

 

[Brax]

You can judge for yourself:

When you watch the 4x100 in the Olympic final it’s still hard to believe he could do that

 

[JW82]

You can judge for yourself:

He was a bad man. You could disguise him in a different uni, and still know its him by that running style. I imagine they had close to the same straight line speed. Hill's shiftiness probably adds another level of greatness.

 

[ClappingCarrot]

I'm a young guy as well, but you can still watch the film.

Dude was a track star. Defensive concepts exist today because of DC's trying to cover him decades ago.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I am old, but not old enough to have seen the Bullet play. Did his play resemble what Tarik Hill is doing today? Hill is easily the fastest player I have ever seen, curious if Bob was making world class athletes look slow too.

Good question I too wonder how they both compare because yeah I’ve never seen anyone like Hill. He’s like a video game.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I'm a young guy as well, but you can still watch the film.

Dude was a track star. New defensive concepts exist today because of DC's trying to cover him decades ago.

I’ll be honest I look at clips of Bullet Hayes and I don’t think they do him justice because he doesn’t look as fast as Hill. But they’re typically slowed down.

 

[Mark]

The Cowboys were always thinking outside the box back in those days. "Hey, let's sign the Olympic 100 sprint champion!" Luckily, Hayes had incredible hands & elusiveness to match his sheer speed.

Then there were the college basketball draftees...

 

[RS12]

Hayes in my recollection tended tended to beat his man deep more often with speed. Whereas Hill tends to beat his coverage on shorter routes that turn onto YAC due to speed and athleticism. Not that Hayes could not turn YAC. He was used different and zone defense wasnt as prevalent when Bullet Bob played.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I am old, but not old enough to have seen the Bullet play. Did his play resemble what Tarik Hill is doing today? Hill is easily the fastest player I have ever seen, curious if Bob was making world class athletes look slow too.

Some quality time on YouTube would probably be a big surprise to you. Hayes was remarkable. Like Brax said, he changed the way defense is played. That is pretty amazing. He took the NFL by storm with his speed. Ran right by people.

 

[StarOfGlory]

Now imagine him running on today’s track surfaces instead of cinder or dirt.

 

[jazzcat22]

Tom Landry's style of an innovative offense and with Bob Hayes, changed defenses as that has been posted.
When other teams changed their offenses to copy Tom's. He then designed the Flex defense to stop the offenses. However no other team could copy his defense. As it took long time to develop.

When they say the 3 year rule, that came from Tom Landry. As it took about 2 to 3 years for even the best to really learn both his systems. But then you had a player for life and could afford to keep them.

Imagine that today as we have fans that freak out after one game if a player does not produce.

 

[RodeoJake]

Tom Landry's style of an innovative offense and with Bob Hayes, changed defenses as that has been posted.
When other teams changed their offenses to copy Tom's. He then designed the Flex defense to stop the offenses. However no other team could copy his defense. As it took long time to develop.

When they say the 3 year rule, that came from Tom Landry. As it took about 2 to 3 years for even the best to really learn both his systems. But then you had a player for life and could afford to keep them.

Imagine that today as we have fans that freak out after one game if a player does not produce.

Those were the days, bud. The complex motion and shifting set the Cowboys apart from other teams. You coulda dressed them in plain unis without the iconic star, and still know they were the Cowboys by their style of play.

 

[Brax]

The Cowboys were always thinking outside the box back in those days. "Hey, let's sign the Olympic 100 sprint champion!" Luckily, Hayes had incredible hands & elusiveness to match his sheer speed.

Then there were the college basketball draftees...

It’s been said many times Bob was a football player who ran track, you can watch the videos but seeing him in a game it was just unbelievable to see the speed, he just ran away from defenders trying to catch him.

 

[Brax]

Now imagine him running on today’s track surfaces instead of cinder or dirt.

Gold medal winner and SB champion not sure any one else has done that.

 

[gtb1943]

Willie Gault almost certainly would have been another; but his olympic year was 1980 and the boycott ruined that. HE was a member of the relay team and almost certainly would have won that gold medal

 

[Qcard]

You can judge for yourself:

The old film does NOT do Bob Hayes Speed justice!!

I wonder if Tarik Hill could run a 10sec 100M in his prime with training??? I doubt it.

The Beauty of Hayes was how amazingly he could convert world class speed to playing football speed.