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"John Brenkus has been satisfying the nerd in every sports fan \u2014 and the sports fan in every nerd \u2014 since 2007. His hit show Sport Science, which nows airs as a periodic segment on ESPN's SportsCenter, takes a lab technician's approach to analyzing how the world's greatest athletes pull off the feats that keep the rest of us on the edge of our seats. \nWhether breaking down the eyeball-rattling speed of table tennis, proving the similarities between NFL stars and rams, or examining the science behind a jump-shot, Brenkus has earned a legion of fans for presenting the games we love in a fascinating light. \nSee also: Is this the funniest photo in baseball history?\nNFL fans, however, are in for a new treat this year thanks to a partnership between Brenkus and Gillette. Each week, he'll take to the the razor company's Facebook page to break down a \"Precision Play of the Week\" from the latest round of games. Fans can then answer trivia questions related to the selected play to win prizes including cash, jerseys and \u2014 eventually \u2014 a trip to Super Bowl XLVIII in New York. \nBrenkus recently caught up with Mashable over the phone to tell us about the promotion, as well as discuss some of the wildest moments and discoveries from his Sport Science career. \nQ&amp;A With John Brenkus\n\nIn these past several years doing Sport Science, who is the single most impressive athlete you've analyzed from a physical perspective?\nThis is totally not a cop-out answer. We've done well over 700 segments for Sports Science and we've had the opportunity to work with hundreds of the world's greatest athletes. That's really the best part of my job, working with people who are the best at what they do. Whether's it's the No. 1 women's table tennis player or Ray Lewis, that athlete just blows me away. Every time we have someone in it's like, \"Oh my god, that was the most amazing thing.\"\nOne of my favorite moments from the show is when you get completely obliterated by NFL running back Brandon Jacobs to experience firsthand how hard his collisions are (see video below). How long could an average Joe last on an NFL field?\nThe average person would for certain be put in the hospital very quickly if they were to step on the NFL field and take those hits. You're going to get hurt really, really badly. What's interesting about football is it's a unique sport in that, with the exception of quarterback and maybe linebacker, you don't really need the now-cliched 10,000 hours of practice. \nYou look at guys like Jason Pierre-Paul or Jacobs\u2014those guys are just phenomenal athletes and football attracts the best athletes. The nuances of the game can be taught fairly quick, but what can't be taught is the athleticism that sport requires. \n\nThat Jacobs segment also reveals that colliding with him is comparable to being run into by a bull. What are some other interesting comparisons from experiments you've done that have really stuck with you?\nWe've done hundreds and hundreds of analogies but here are some more good ones. We measured a Ray Lewis bull-rush up against a SWAT team battering ram, and found that Ray Lewis actually generates more force than the battering ram. When you think of standing in the way of something, that's a pretty good analogy. We also looked at Calvin Johnson's mobility and athleticism. We found that from a standstill he has a range bigger than a two-car garage, so you could throw a ball anywhere within a two-car garage and he'd be able to catch it.  \nYou mentioned that the NFL requires a different level of athleticism. Does that mean NFL players would have the best chance of excelling at other sports? Which types of athletes would be most likely to be successful at a wide range of sports?\nThe answer to that is best summed up by Bo Jackson, who we determined to be the best all-around athlete of all time. He believes strongly that the era of the multi-sport athlete has passed. Athletes have become so good and specialized in their sports and positions that it's difficult to cross over like Bo and Deion Sanders did. Now, it's absolutely conceivable someone like LeBron James could walk onto the field and play in the NFL. He's big enough and strong enough, and played in high school. But the reality is that he'd be jeopardizing his NBA career. \nWhen you want to analyze each sport now, ask which one creates the best athletes, the answer is really that each athlete at each position in every sport is the best at what they do. So we have to then break down what we're talking about when we're talking about athleticism\u2014which skills, which reflexes, what types of strength and other characteristics we're valuing. \nUsain Bolt sprinting, Aroldis Chapman pitching and more recently Diana Nyad distance-swimming\u2014it seems we're seeing humans accomplish new levels of athletic achievement with almost startling regularity. Will that continue forever, or is there a hard limit to what people are capable of athletically?\nIn my book The Perfection Point, I address that exact question. Are we forever going to be shaving off a hundredth of a second until humans are running the 100 in two seconds? No. There obviously has to be a limit when you factor in what it means to be human, the rules of sports and what the human body is capable of. There are absolutely limits to how fast we can run, how high we can jump, how long we can hold our breath. \nAre there any sports where you think we're particularly close to this ceiling?\nWhen we look at which records we're pretty close to achieving the perfection point, I think we might be closest in the marathon. We're currently at two hours and three minutes there, which I think is pretty close to the limit. One of the reasons for that is that we've been doing long-distance running as a species for a very long time, back to when we were hunters running across the plains after game. \nThe marathon, at 26.2 miles, is an arbitrary distance. But when you ask how long humans can sustain a max stride length, a max heart rate, maximum physical exertion, I think we're almost there. It will be possible for us to break two hours I think, but not by much. We're really rapidly, on a percentage basis, approaching perfection there. \nImages: ESPN video; Robin Marchant/Getty Images for ESPN"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/09/11/sport-science-john-brenkus-interview/>