The 400m hurdles is a crash and burn race. Absolutely brutal to prepare for and form seldom holds. Only if you really keep your strides to a consistent minimum is an Edwin Moses or Angelo Taylor career available. In the semis you might cruise effortlessly over every hurdle in rapid time, then fall apart and chop your steps prior to every late hurdle during the finals. That scenario plays out all the time. Guys wobble home and sprawl across the finish line. Notice there isn't an 800m hurdles race, or anything beyond that. 400 meters is stretching it. I have as much respect for those athletes as any Olympians.
I'll stick with my summaries of Robert Griffin posted early last spring but one thing I never worried about was off the field options. Griffin showed great promise as a high school hurdler but he's years behind the specialists and his times basically suggested a semifinal caliber athlete, not medal contender. In four years he'll be further removed and the recipient of hundreds of hits to the legs. It's always convenient to project crossover greatness for a football player but most often it's laughable. I watched John Elway play baseball at Stanford. He was a rightfielder who removed his cap and ran his fingers through his hair after literally every pitch. Perhaps the 7th best player on their team, albeit the top groomer.
The greatest hilarity of all is the NFL players who asserted a year or two ago that they wanted a piece of Usain Bolt. I notice that has quieted lately. The term "world class speed" is ridiculously abused by commentators, tossed around like a piece of candy. Watch the Olympics or the Trials and the gap is startling. Guys who are blurs on the football field struggle to get out of the first round of heats. They never earn a call in the race.
The 110m hurdles option is even more unlikely for Griffin. That event is improving all the time, stacked with young talent, and Aries Merritt is not yet in his prime. Besides, Griffin's hand timed 13.3 was dubious and wind aided. He'd have considerably more opportunity in the 400m, due to the uncertain aspect of the race that I mentioned in the lead. You might be 6th best with two hurdles to clear and inherit 3rd place and the final Olympic berth via pratfalls in front of you.
Granted, Robert Griffin has enough ego to defy logic and waste time. It's the reason I prefer handicapping outcomes, not opinions.
Awsi you bet on track and field too?