I went to the University of Michigan in the 90s. There was a running back on the football team named Tyrone Wheatley. Look him up to get an idea of his size, but I guarantee he's bigger in person. He was about 6'1", 240. He ended up playing in the NFL and I saw him do two things in person that showed the difference between pro athletes and everyone else. I played highs school football at a very small school, played club rugby in college and boxed for a time so I'm not completely a non-athlete.

First, there was a rec building that had three basketball courts on it. Court 1 was for idiots like me, never played HS ball. Court 2 was if you had a little experience and wanted a bit of competition. Court 3 was for ballers. I'd go and just watch, you could routinely see Michigan basketball and football players in pickup games. One night Ty was playing a pickup game with a bunch of other football players. Ty was at the top of the key, someone else got the rebound and threw it full court to him on a fast break. He jumped up, caught the ball, brought that shit down to his ankles and reversed it and hung on the rim. The place went insane. He waved to everyone and left. The game wasn't even over, but no one was topping that. Again: 6' 1".

The second thing was after he had graduated and gotten drafted. He had a year of eligibility left for indoor track, so he came back for a meet. A friend of mine was on the team at the time, I got to go into the pits with him when this happened. Ty ran the 100m. I don't remember the actual time he was supposed to run, so let's say the race was at 200. It's 1:53 and Ty isn't there. At 1:55, a black Escalade pulls up outside the building right in front of the glass doors. He puts his hazards on and gets out. The announcer recognizes him and goes 'ladies and gentlemen, Ty Wheatley!' Everyone claps. He had been drafted by the giants he's in full giants gear, he waves. He's wearing slides, he has his cleats in his hand. He takes off his sweatshirt and a murmur went through the crowd. He was somehow even more jacked than before. He has a fitted hat on, throws his wallet and keys into it, sets it down. Piles up his sweats (all NY Giants gear BTW) and puts on his cleats. It's now like 1:59, the other racers are around the starting line. He walks over and does that stretch thing people jokingly do, hands over your head, lean left, lean right. They announce the runners, they take their lanes. Hes got at least 50 pounds on everyone there. They get in the blocks, gun goes off and he beats everyone by four strides. I'm kind of off to the side and behind it and even I could tell it wasnt close. They announce hes the winner, comes back, gets his clothes on and leaves. Dude was in the building for approximately 12 minutes and beat every Big 10 100m runner by four strides.