Horse-race coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign took on a new dimension Friday when Sen. Marco Rubio laid down the gauntlet that he could beat any other candidate in a foot race.
“I’ll tell you this: I’m the fastest person running for president,” Rubio joked with former NFL running back Tiki Barber on Barber’s CBS Sports Radio program Friday morning.
Rubio was talking about one of his favorite topics: football. He is famously a big fan and known for having played through high school and into one year of college on a scholarship.
Rubio told Barber that his fastest 40-yard dash — a common measure of a player’s speed — was 4.65 seconds. That’s a respectable time for a big lineman, but for his position, defensive back, and his height, five feet nine inches, he admitted he would have had to be much faster to pursue football professionally.
“At some point you grow up and realize … if you’re going to be my size, you better run a 4.3,” he said. “I was realistic about that.”
The Florida Republican also acknowledged he’s spoken before about dreaming for an office he jokes is even more powerful than president.
“I really want to be NFL commissioner. President just seems like a stepping stone to the most powerful position in the country,” Rubio quipped. “When you’re commissioner, you’re judge, jury and executioner — that’s a lot of power.”
In the meantime, as his children play high school in school, Rubio begrudgingly admitted that it’s his wife, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, who has gotten closest to his dreams.
“It’s hard for me to accept that the only person in my family who’s ever worked on an NFL field is my wife, not me,” he said.
Barber did not ask about a campaign event in Iowa where Rubio was playing football with children and accidentally knocked one over with an errant pass.