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The NFL is overflowing with impossibly athletic players who have the ability to pull off some wildly impressive plays on a regular basis, but there aren’t many guys I’d be more terrified of going head-to-head with than Derrick Henry.
Running backs in the league may currently be facing a bit of an existential crisis as teams become increasingly wary of investing too much money into the position, but you have to assume the Titans are pretty pleased with the dominant rushing threat who went down in franchise history last season while proving he’s one of the best RBs (if not the best) in the NFL.
One of Henry’s biggest advantages is a 6’3″ frame packed with the massive muscles that help him weigh in at close to 250 pounds, and the fact that he’s also one of the fastest players on the field means it’s pretty hard to envy any defenders who end up in his path.
Guys who get paid to play football for a living routinely have a pretty tough time tackling Henry, so it’s safe to assume he’d have no trouble evading the average adult—and he certainly wouldn’t have any issues with a small child.
However, one reporter floated an interesting thought experiment when Mike Vrabel held a press conference on Monday, which concerned a hypothetical scenario involving Henry and a theoretically endless army of five-year-olds with one purpose in life: tackling Derrick Henry.
The Titans head coach was asked exactly how many kids of that age he thought it would take to take down Henry, and he paused for a bit before delivering a fantastic response, saying:
“A s*** ton. I don’t even know if they could. How many kids would die in the process?
Do I need to give you a number? Like a legitimate number? What’s the area? Is it a confined space?
Let’s say he’s got a 10-yard-wide space. It would probably take 35.”
Say what you will about A.I., but I can’t think of a better use for that technology than answering that question once and for all.