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Video: One of the Argos’ newest signings can keep up on a treadmill going 25 miles-per-hour

Andrew Bucholtz

Speed is always helpful to have in the CFL, and the Toronto Argonauts appear to have found some with one of their newest signings, former NCAA track and field athlete Robert Gill. Gill played basketball and ran track in college at Division I Texas State, but has been playing football as a receiver/returner since, competing in arena football from 2008-2013 and attending the NFL's Arizona Cardinals' training camp in 2013. That's where he made one of his most memorable impacts, as the Argos' Twitter feed noted following his signing:

Here's the video they're referencing, of Gill managing to keep up (for a few seconds) on a treadmill set to 25 miles per hour during the Cardinals' training camp:

That's pretty impressive. Gill has shown good speed in activities more closely related to football as well, recording a stunning 40-yard-dash time of 4.19 seconds back in 2008. While the 40 isn't everything, it can be awfully important. Gill's track success (he went from lightly recruited in that sport to a one of the top 400m runners in Division I) speaks well for his work ethic, too, and he's also earned raves about his speed and ability from scouts. as shown in this 2013 piece from the Cardinals' website:

Gill was cut four times in one season at one point. But in 2010, he signed with the Abilene Ruff Riders of the Intense Football League, a lower-level indoor league. Waiting for him there was Danton Barto.

Barto coached against Gill in the IFL that season and the first thing he noticed was how fast Gill was.

“This guy is flying by our guys,” said Barto, who was hired as an area scout by the St. Louis Rams earlier this month. “It was the first time I had seen him, heard about him or anything of that nature.

“The one thing you can’t teach is speed. And his speed was … you don’t see too many guys in your life as fast as Robert is.”

Barto said he’s seen one other – Deion Sanders.

“That’s the only guy that I saw in person at the time that you could tell he’s faster than everybody else,” Barto said.

After the season Barto was named the head coach of the AFL’s Kansas City Command and didn’t waste any time signing Gill. Gill was inactive for the first few games in 2011 before getting a chance to prove himself.

Gill’s speed wasn’t causing problems for just opponents. Barto had to rebuild plays, adding extra yardage to correlate with the timing. During training camp, Command quarterback J.J. Raterink routinely underthrew Gill. When Gill wasn’t flying past secondaries, which would often start the play 20 yards or more off the line of scrimmage, he was used as a decoy. Barto told Gill to “just take off, let’s see what happens.”

That worked out for Gill, leading to an impressive IFL season, a return to the higher-profile AFL, and eventually an NFL tryout in 2013. All that doesn't mean he's a sure thing for CFL success, though. Gill's already tried the CFL once, signing with Hamilton in 2009 following his first year in arena football, but he didn't make it out of training camp. Things could be different now, as he has much more football experience under his belt (in addition to not playing in college, Gill only played one season in high school football, and that was as a safety), but speed alone doesn't always make a great player; after all, Gill has shown more speed than most NFL receivers, but couldn't stick in that league. He's also 30 now, so he may not have quite the speed he used to.

However, 5'10'', 180-pound guys like Gill have been far more likely to succeed north of the border than south of it in the past, as the bigger CFL field and return-enhancing rules can favour quick, small players. We'll see how he and the other new Argonauts (RB Michael Bellamy and DB Vincent Agnew) do in the coming season, but Gill's certainly a player to watch. The only tricky part might be keeping eyes on a guy who can move that fast...