NFL in the Olympics: NFL players who also competed in the Olympic Games

The Super Bowl will always be the main focus for those who play American football, but there are plenty who have switched their attention to the Olympic Games throughout history.

No fewer than 37 have gone from the NFL to compete in the Summer Olympics, while Herschel Walker, Johnny Quinn (both bobsleigh) and Jeremy Bloom (freestyle skiing) switched to the Winter Games although only Walker played a competitive NFL game.

This history stretches all the way back to 1912, while the most recent NFL players to compete at the Games are Nate Ebner (rugby sevens), Jahvid Best and Marvin Bracy (both athletics) at Rio 2016.

Jim Thorpe

Known as one of the world's most versatile athletes, Jim Thorpe played professional American football, baseball and basketball.

He also became the first NFL player to compete in the Olympics when doing so at Stockholm 1912.

Competing in the decathlon, pentathlon, long jump and high jump, Thorpe won gold in the first two of those.

However, he was later stripped of his medals after it came out that he had played baseball professionally, which went against the laws of amateurism at the time.

Jim Bausch

As well as being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954, Jim Bausch played professionally as a halfback in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds.

He also competed for USA in the decathlon at Los Angeles 1932, where he ended the first day in fifth.

Though, after brilliant displays in the discus throw and pole vault, Bausch built up an insurmountable lead and won gold ahead of Finland's reigning silver medallist Akilles Jarvinen - who had been heavily favoured before the Games.

Glenn Davis

The man nicknamed "Jeep" was a hurdler and sprinter who went on to win three Olympic gold medals and earned a place in the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

Glenn Davis won his first gold at Melbourne 1956 in the 400m hurdles and retained that title at Rome 1960 as well as adding gold in the 4x400m relay.

After his track career, Davis played as a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions in 1960 and 1961.

Bob Hayes

In the same year he was drafted into the NFL, Bob Hayes competed for USA at Tokyo 1964.

That year, 'Bullet Bob' went on to win gold in both the 100m and 4x100m relay - equalling the world record of 10.06 seconds in the former.

USA had been fifth in the latter until Hayes took over in the final leg and not only led them to victory but also secured another world record.

In 1972, he won Super Bowl VI with Dallas Cowboys, which still makes him the only ever athlete to win both Olympics gold and a Super Bowl ring.

Henry Carr

Like Hayes, Henry Carr competed at Tokyo 1964 and walked away with two golds - in the 200m and 4x400m relay - with a world record accompanying the latter.

In 1965, he was drafted into the NFL, being picked by the New York Giants in the fourth round.

He went on to play for them as a cornerback for three seasons, being hampered by a knee injury in the last of them.

Jim Hines

At Mexico City 1968, Jim Hines won gold in the 100m and 4x100m relay for USA.

Having become the first person to record a sub-10 second race earlier that year, he would go on to do it again at the Olympics and held the world record time for 15 years - USA's 4x100m time was also a record.

While Hines was, naturally, one of the NFL's fastest players after being drafted in 1968.

It was felt he didn't have the required football skills to match that speed and his American football career only lasted two years.

Michael Carter

Michael Carter is the only man to win an Olympic medal and the Super Bowl in the same season.

In 1979, Carter set an American high school shot put record which still stands to this day.

At college, he combined being a formidable defensive tackle for Southern Methodist University with winning three NCAA shot put titles.

He was selected in the 1984 NHL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers three months before going to the Los Angeles 1984 Games where he took shot silver behind Italy's Alessandro Andrei.

As a rookie, he won the Super Bowl with the 49ers and repeated those triumphs in the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

But his history with the Olympics was far from done. At Rio 2016, daughter Michelle went one better than him to take shot put gold.