Sony Michel: High School Sprinter To Super Bowl Champion

By Todd Grasley for DyeStat

In his first season in the NFL, 23-year-old rookie Sony Michel put on a show on football’s largest stage.

The New England Patriots rookied scored the lone touchdown in Super Bowl LIII and rushed for 94 yards to give the storied franchise a 13-3 win over the Rams and its sixth Lombardi Trophy.

Michel didn’t just start outrunning the competition this year. He’s been doing it since he was a middle school sprinter in South Florida.

As an eighth grader at Plantation American Heritage, Michel made it to the FHSAA 2A State Championships in the 100 meters. He continued his season with a trip to the middle school state championship and scored a runner-up spot in the 100 and a bronze in the 200 meters. Michel was just making his mark and improving his times as he headed toward high school.

As a freshman, Michel lowered his PRs to 10.73 and 21.91.

“Sony has always been fast since I met him in 2011,” former American Heritage track and football coach Mike Rumph said.

Rumph, who played in the NFL and is now the cornerbacks coach for the Miami Hurricanes, saw Michel develop into a blue-chip football recruit. 

“He has extreme acceleration, but track made him stronger mentally and physically,” he said. “The 400 was his fear, but he learned how to run them, and get over his hate for 400-meter base work.”

Michel used the 2012 season as rehab after an ACL tear and focused his effort on the relays.

“I told him it would give him his confidence back, running the curve on my 4x1 team,” Rumph added. 

Not only did it give him confidence, but his first and only state championship in track and field. Michel teamed up with future NFL draft pick, Isaiah McKenzie, Torrance Gibson, who is currently in the CFL, and 2016 Olympian Teray Smith, who competed in the Rio de Janeiro Games for the Bahamas.

That quartet won the Florida Class 2A title in 40.90 seconds.

RACE VIDEO OF THE 2012 2A 4x100 FHSAA FINAL

Michel chose to hang up the track spikes and focus on football. He did not run track his senior year, in 2014.

Football took him to the University of Georgia, where teamed up with Nick Chubb to give the Bulldogs a powerful 1-2 rushing attack. He was also a teammate with the slightly older Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams.

A stellar senior season in Athens, which included 1,227 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, as well as a rock star performance in the Rose Bowl (181 rushing yards and four touchdowns), boosted his stock for the 2018 NFL Draft.

The Patriots selected Michel with the 31st pick in the first round. 

On Monday night, the spoils of victory included an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show, bringing the Lombari Trophy on stage.

“Words can’t explain the emotions running through my body,” Michel told Kimmel. “It’s so surreal.”