Noah Lyles, the reigning world champion in 100 meters and 200 meters, made an on-field appearance at last Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets, which was broadcast live from MetLife Stadium to the delight of both football and track and field fans.
2023 proved to be a fruitful year for Lyles, as he not only achieved international prominence through his three gold medal-winning performances in the World Athletics championships, but that Netflix is also set to launch a series centered around his life as a track and field athlete.
And now to top it all off, he made his debut appearance at an NFL game.
Lyles’ Milestones Jacket and NFL entrance
Lyles made his entrance into the stadium donning a casual celebrity ensemble that was topped with a black leather jacket bearing the words “3 PEAT” and “WORLD RECORD HOLDER” on the back. The jacket also featured the most notable time records of his career, printed on the left upper arm section.
These records included the 19.65 seconds and 19.50 seconds he achieved in 2019, as well as his personal best of 19.31 seconds he achieved in World Athletics Championships Oregon22. To date, Lyles is the only American sprinter, apart from Michael Johnson, to break 19.30 seconds barrier, ranking him third in the all-time top 200 sprinters list behind only Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.
Comments on Lyles
Noah Lyles keeping track of his 200m milestones on his jacket pic.twitter.com/TYevxygveQ
— Travis Miller (@travismillerx13) October 1, 2023
With fanfare music playing in the background and the emcee announcing his arrival, he stepped out onto the field with one of his gold medals in his hand and waved to the crowd. In an up close shot, Lyles proceeded to wear his gold medal in front of the camera before greeting the crowd again.
.@LylesNoah 🤝 @NFL
Noah Lyles showed off some of his World Championship bling on Sunday Night Football.
pic.twitter.com/BEgwxy6LeO— FloTrack (@FloTrack) October 2, 2023
World Champions?
In his interview outside the game, one of the hosts took the opportunity to ask Lyles if Super Bowl was considered an American championship or a world championship, to which he light-heartedly answered “Well, what was the NFL stand for? National Football League, y’all national champions, still [they’re] Super Bowl champions.”
"Já venci o Super Bowl e vou te perguntar, pode ser considerado um campeonato americano ou mundial?"
Noah Lyles: "O que significa NFL? Campeonato Nacional de Futebol, vocês são campeões nacionais ,mas também campeões do Super Bowl"
SÓ MITADA VIOLENTA
pic.twitter.com/cFYcpVSw59— NBA do Povo 🏀🇧🇷 (@NBAdoPovo) October 2, 2023
Lyles appeared to be cautious about how to answer the question this time around, as he recently got embroiled in a controversy for mocking the NBA for being “world champions”, when they only competed within the USA.
What a moment! 😝 pic.twitter.com/HzCHJCfgM6
— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) October 2, 2023
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The photo above is from Twitter screenshot