June 19, 2004

Bad 40 Times and Pinocchio Jones

By Fred Pasek

To many fans of Virginia Tech, running back Kevin Jones is Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner, and The Flash all rolled into one.  After all, Kevin Jones put his speed on display all season by taking advantage of gaping holes opened for him by an offensive line led by the likes of center Jake Grove and left tackle Jon Dunn.  But as Jones would make his trip down the Astroturf to the riches of the NFL on his March 25^th pro day, he stood before representatives from 30 NFL teams with their arms crossed and smirks on their faces.  Jones’ anxiety was palpable from the beginning to the end of his run.  Maybe Road Runner and friends should have made room for Pinocchio.

What I discovered in doing my research might best account for his emotional state on that particular day — prior to that fateful and revealing pro day, the slowest time I found attributed to Kevin Jones was 4.35 in the 40-yard dash and the fastest was timed by, you guessed it, his father at 4.27.

The run was over in a 4.6 second flash.  When the coaches and scouts looked down at their watches, most of them had stopped at or near that time.  You would think they would shake their stopwatches and double check to see if there was a malfunction; surely there must be something wrong.  Why would a prospect boast of such fantastic feats, knowing his claims would eventually have to be verified by objective observers?  Not surprisingly, they weren’t surprised.  More than likely most of them had expected as much.  It’s even a safer bet that none of them looked at their watch and thought, “Well, my watch says 4.6, but his dad said 4.27, so I must be wrong, I’ll just write down 4.27.” 

This farce has become commonplace these days and it should stop to keep other young men from feeling the same humiliation which Jones surely felt as he ran two more times, with even worse results.  40-yard dash times are a joke.

I don’t mean to pick on Kevin Jones, he’s just the latest in a long line of athletes whose coaches and relatives find it necessary for some reason to start a stopwatch a split second slow and stop it a split second early.  Who could forget Kenechi Udeze’s agent’s claim that he would run a 4.5?  But don’t blame the players; they’re not holding the stopwatch.   

On some level, one can’t really blame these coaches and parents too much.  The pride they feel when they walk into the local store and spout proudly, “My boy ran a 4.27 yesterday,” must be overwhelming.  Who knows, a young athlete may even condone it; after all, it must be nice to have that mystique of being a “legitimate 4.3” guy, even if it’s just for four years.  When these guys stroll around campus, students gasp, women swoon and everyone points and thinks legitimate 4.3 guy.  My consolation comes from the fact that I believe most of these people who hold the stopwatch actually care for these young men and their anguish will be just as great when the player faces the humiliation from not running the time he’s been told he’s been running all this time.

For years, sports commentators have been throwing the “legitimate 4.3” label around too much as an adjective because they feel a player “can fly”, “can pick ‘em up and put ‘em down”, or “has afterburners.”  Personally, I wish they would just stick to that crazy, yet descriptive, “this guy is really fast.”  And, by the way, I’m still waiting for the first announcer to use that refreshing tag line of “illegitimate 4.3 guy.”

Anyone, including announcers, inclined to throw “4.3” praise around should check themselves.  Fortunately some have already started to withhold such labels.  In recent years there have been a number of articles attempting to prove that the 4.3 time in a 40-yard dash remains unattained by the human runner.  One particular article instructs the reader to look at maybe the fastest 40-yard sprint ever run in history — the sprint turned in by a doped up Ben Johnson in the Olympics.  Johnson, already a world class sprinter, began taking steroids to enhance his workouts.  Johnson, an absolute freak, would explode out of the blocks in a bizarre burst which propelled him three yards ahead of the nearest man by the time he had taken his third step.  The claim is that when Johnson, the world’s fastest man running his fastest race, is beyond the 4.4 mark when he reached forty yards.  Even if you still insist on believing that a sub-4.4 mark is achievable, it’s undeniable that far too many 40 times published and quoted prior to the combine end up being completely bogus for any of them to be taken seriously prior to that event.

What’s funny is that when these facts are pointed out to 40-yard dash worshipers, zealots and followers of Neon Deion, they are downplayed as though they were somehow a subjective interpretation or a matter of opinion.  I’ve actually had fans state in their desperate attempt to cling to those times that, “football players know how to run the forty time better than Olympic sprinters.”  Invariably, the discussion of the “slow track” at Indianapolis is brought up, as if these athletes were mercilessly subjected to running through quicksand — yeah, okay.  I suppose it’s possible that all world-class sprinters, athletes relying solely upon their speed in getting from point A to point B in the fastest possible time for their livelihood, have somehow miscalculated how they are running and football players actually hold the secret techniques to getting across that distance faster than anyone.  If you believe that one, I’ll make some psychic predictions for you for the small price of ten bucks.

One might ask how is it that the “legitimate” timing which is done at the combine produces numbers approaching 4.3.  Human error and psychology would explain a lot.  When a runner is down in his stance, they call out “ready, set, go,” and my guess is that the guys running the fastest times anticipate the “go” and leave before it even comes out, the stopwatches start on “go.”  At the other end of the run, the timer doesn’t want to rob the young man of precious seconds and stops the watch when he anticipates the runner will cross the finish line.  Timing these athletes electronically, a cumbersome and inconvenient alternative, would guarantee higher times.

However, not all schools and athletes partake in the art of the 40 time.  It seems that some institutions, players, coaches, and family members have a little honor left and refuse to make such claims, instead letting the play of their players speak for itself.  In the list that follows you will see the conspicuous absence of some notable names from big time schools.  In many cases, it appears weaker programs have actually tried to bolster their image by making these absurd claims, perhaps in the hopes of getting better recruits to join their fellow speedsters.  So be sure to take a good look at the list below and imagine for a moment if all of these young men could actually run as fast as they claim.  They would change the face of the NFL in a single year.  No team would be left without its own set of corner backs or wide receivers who run that magical 4.3 time.

Having said all that, you would think that we’d throw 40 times in the dungeon and throw away the key.  No, we’re weak, we love them too.  If for no other reason than just to see who is the king of the hill.  So we’ll be tracking outrageous and even not-so outrageous 40 time claims and subsequently comparing them to how those players time at the combine or their pro days.

We don’t do this to demean anyone; we don’t do this to make a profound statement which revolutionizes 40-yard timing.  It’s far too late to expect any such change to the system.  If coaches and relatives started telling true 40 times tomorrow, it would throw the college football world into turmoil.  No, we will follow this for our own amusement and yours, keeping in mind that fans probably place far more value on 40 times than professionals coaches do.  Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle when one of the players listed below as having 4.3 speed struggles through the quicksand in Indianapolis and is lucky enough to be chased down from behind by an NFL linebacker.

Who Will Be a 40-Yard Time Fraud?

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