For the 40-holics out there

[hndog609]

There's been much discussion on 40 times on here (and the internet in general) and I thought I'd offer up this little tidbit. A guy by the name of Chris Johnson blew up an OFFICIAL* 4.24 40 at this years combine.

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Somewhere I hope Mark Zeigler (the knucklehead that started the whole attempt to directly compare Ben Johnson's track time to football 40's) is having somebody he knows giving him a hard time.

*Some times you hear, and I think this has caused some serious confusion over the years, aren't official. For instance, McFadden was credited with a 4.27 unofficially but 4.33 officially.

 

[pricevol5]

UNOFFICIAL? Wow, unreal.

 

[005]

chris johnson tore it up in the bowl game

 

[jhen713]

I don't buy into 40 times that much. I know speed is important, but if you don't have the vision or football skills to use it it dosen't matter. Look at Lennard Scott, he was supposed to be sooooooo fast. Where did his speed get him? Just another average reciever/ kick returner.

 

[allvol123]

Yea...40-holics

 

[Jaytrain5]

That's nothing. Tim Tebow ran a -3.1416 in the 40 yard dash.

It was so fast it actually reversed the Earth's rotation and sent him back in time.

 

[smokeyman15]

True Story...

 

[hndog609]

I don't buy into 40 times that much. I know speed is important, but if you don't have the vision or football skills to use it it dosen't matter. Look at Lennard Scott, he was supposed to be sooooooo fast. Where did his speed get him? Just another average reciever/ kick returner.

You are 100% correct in that speed, in and of itself, translates poorly to a football field without having other facets as you mentioned. Having said that, there have been some insane discussions (sometimes prompted by boredom in the off-season I suppose) on the subject. In particular you can run across followers of the great false-prophet Zeigler (previously mentioned) here and elsewhere that not only would have you believe that nobody could actually run a 4.2 anything but that world class sprinters could only manage (the cited Ben Johnson time is 4.38) 4.3's. Its a ludicrous arguement that I can only hope this guy's highly scrutinized (the modern NFL combine is the Olympics of 40yd sprints) 4.24 can help put to rest.

On a side note you might be a bit disingenuous towards Scott's return game. He's one of our best return guys and led the SEC in KOR at least once. He was in fact a bust at WR.

 

[superdave1984]

I don't buy into 40 times that much. I know speed is important, but if you don't have the vision or football skills to use it it dosen't matter. Look at Lennard Scott, he was supposed to be sooooooo fast. Where did his speed get him? Just another average reciever/ kick returner.

Renaldo Nehimiah. Probably butchered the guy's name, but you know who I am talking about.

 

[hndog609]

Renaldo Nehimiah. Probably butchered the guy's name, but you know who I am talking about.

Good example. There's actually very few "world class" guys that ever became players of any real worth. There's lots of very fast guys that have, Moss/Deion/Bo Jackson/Hershel etc. Those guys do NOT have WC speed. The only two guys that I can think of that had WC speed and became genuinely good players are Bob Hayes and Darrell Green. Gault deserves being at least mentioned and you could possibly make a case for Cliff Branch. I can't immediately think of anybody else that really meets the WC speed (if you don't have 10.20 or better 100 meters to your name don't bother showing up) criteria and produced on the field to any real extent.