This post is actually my second post regarding NFL Combine 40 Yard Dash times. In my first post revealing the TRUTH about the NFL Combine 40 Yard Dash Times, I provided some eye opening information on what everything we hear about the fastest 40 yard dash times at the NFL combine is just plain wrong!
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In today’s post, I’ve got more of the same. Yes, that’s right, it’s finally starting come into national news what Strength Coaches have known for years – athletes never achieve the mythical 4.2 40 yard dash times at the NFL combine.
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THe question is, where do these myths come from? Well, now you will find out!
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Check out this article from Rivals.com titled Fine, we get it: Florida is fast. There’s no need to exaggerate. By Matt Hinton
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Here’s a few quotes from Matt Hinton’s article:
“We’ve already seen one interesting sign in Florida’s locker room today. Here is another, filled withobviously fake 40-yard dash times:”
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“Forget for a second the general abuse of the 40 as a relevant measure of “football speed,” which is more about short bursts and quickness in tight spaces. Despite the glaring absence of the fastest player in the country, Jeffrey Demps, you’ll notice four players are listed here as sub-4.3, or faster than any player ran in the entire NFL combine. That includes the only warp-speed Gator to run in Indianapolis, Percy Harvin, whose official, electronically-timed 4.41 tied for the sixth-best effort at the combine but wouldn’t have even gotten him on the above board in Gainesville. According to this, Chris Rainey is only barely human, having apparently evolved certain characteristics of a rabbit (in, uh, more ways than one, perhaps).”
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Rivals.com writer, Matt Hinton then wrote a follow up article on the NFL Combine 40 Yard Dash titled – Haden, Mays remind us again to beware the cult of the fake 40 time.
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Here are a few quotes by Matt Hinton from that article:
“I got a little mileage last spring out of Florida’s fake 40 board,(pictured above) which ludicrously claimed that four Gators ran faster 40 times during winter workouts than any single player at last year’s NFL combine. In the wake of cornerback Joe Haden’s disappointing sprint Tuesday at this year’s edition of the meat market, I’ve been encouraged via email to dig it up for old time’s sake:”
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“At Florida, Haden was listed at 4.33, significantly faster than any cornerback in last year’s combine; coming into Tuesday’s proceedings as a virtual lock to go in the top 10 of next month’s draft, he was expected to run in the low 4.4 range, which still would have been faster than any cornerback actually posted Tuesday (the fastest official time by any corner in Indy this morning was 4.45, posted by Wake Forest’s Brandon Ghee). Haden’s times: 4.57 on the first run, 4.60 on the second, immediately putting his high-first-round status in jeopardy. (Those are unofficial times off hand-held watches, which typically get slower when “official” electronic times comes in.) Suddenly, Haden’s not just the All-American and top prospect scouts saw on film — there’s a number that says he’s kind of slow. Said one scout on the NFL Network, “People are going to have a hard time getting that 4.57 out of their head with a top-10 corner.”
“On the opposite end of the spectrum, 230-pound USC safety Taylor Mays lit up the stopwatches with an unreal 4.24:
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“If that time had stood, it would have tied East Carolina’s Chris Johnson as the fastest recorded time in combine history and solidified Mays as the freakiest of all freaks who walked through the door this year or almost any other. Of course, it didn’t stand: When the electronic numbers came in, his official time was 4.43 — still the fastest time among all DBs on hand, but nowhere near the eye-popping reports off the stopwatches. Trindon Holliday’s initially record-breaking run on Sunday met the same fate, when the diminutive LSU return man/NCAA track champion’s best time was downgraded from an absurd 4.22 on the stopwatches to a slightly less absurd 4.34 on the books.”
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You can read both of Matt Hinton’s articles (quoted above), in full, on Rivals.com. Just click on the title of the articles below.
Haden, Mays remind us again to beware the cult of the fake 40 time
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Fine, we get it: Florida is fast. There’s no need to exaggerate.
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I hope you now se the TRUTH about these mythical NFL Combine 40 Yard Dash Times.
