This is despite a likely clash with a pre-season training camp ahead of the start of the next NFL season, where he plays as a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills.

At the same time as he was enjoying a brilliant collegiate career in American football at the University of Texas, the 25-year-old qualified for London 2012 with a personal best of 8.33 metres at the US Olympic Team Trials.

He finished 10th in the Olympics in a final won by Britain's Greg Rutherford. 

Goodwin had won a gold medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. 

He was drafted by the Bills in 2013, catching for a first NFL touchdown in the sixth week of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Since then he has been hampered by rib injury problems and returned to the long jump for the first time in four years last summer in a bid to regain fitness in the off-season.

He narrowly missed out on qualifying for the US team at August's World Championships in Beijing, finishing fourth at the trials despite setting a personal best 8.37m.

A month later he jumped 8.27m to win the silver medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto behind team-mate Jeffrey Henderson. 

“I’ll be doing track this off-season,” Goodwin told ESPN.

“Just trying to accomplish all the dreams I set out to do, while I can, while I’m still able-bodied.

"As I mentioned plenty of times before, I got a sister who never walked a day in her life.

"And if she had the ability to do something, she’d do it to the best of her ability, everything she could.

"So why not take advantage of what I have, the blessings that I was blessed with, instead of just limiting myself to football, when I could be [competing in] two sports.”

If he is able to qualify through the fiercely competitive US trials, Goodwin would be a contender for a medal at Rio 2016. 

Missing the first week of pre-season training, which clashes with the long jump final date of August 13, could, however, hamper his NFL ambitions as he bids to return to the Bills team.

There is a prestigious list of athletes who have competed in the NFL and the Olympic Games, headed by Stockhom 1912 decathlon and pentathlon champion Jim Thorpe. 

Others have included the Mexico 1968 200m champion Tommie Smith, famous for performing the black power salute on the medal podium, who spent three seasons as a wide receiver for Los Angeles Rams.