{"id":93,"date":"2009-08-20T19:21:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/71.18.65.144\/biblioblog\/?p=93"},"modified":"2009-08-20T19:21:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-20T23:21:00","slug":"40-times-and-olympicworld-class-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonstaples.com\/sports\/40-times-and-olympicworld-class-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"40 times and Olympic\/World Class Speed"},"content":{"rendered":"
It’s that time of year again. Seems like every year around this time, there’s a big fuss over the ridiculous 40 times put up by various football players. As usual, the 40 yard splits of Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, and now Usain Bolt (Johnson’s split was a reported 4.37; Bolt’s about a 4.35) are thrown into the discussion as evidence that these football times are simply smoke-and-mirrors, that [insert player’s] extremely fast 40 time absolutely must be inflated or illegitimate, since top 100m sprinters didn’t run their 40 yard splits that fast in record-breaking races. Before I continue, let me first point out that I think the 40 time is way overrated by recruitniks, draftniks, and other sorts of footballniks. I would rather see a player’s vertical leap, pro shuttle time, and 100m time (in that order) as better determining factors of performance. The best football player I ever played with was a wide receiver who ran in the high 4.5 to low 4.6 range: Anquan Boldin. I really don’t think that 40 time reflects just how good a football player that guy was and is.<\/p>\n That said, there are a few things that need to be considered before crying “foul” at the first sight of a blistering 40 time:<\/p>\n Hopefully, this will help restore some sanity to a few folks’ thinking when they’re seeing what seem to be ridiculously low 40 times. Sometimes those times are indeed legitimate, within the constraints of timing from movement rather than from the gun.<\/p>\n Oh, and I should mention one more thing for the FSU fans out there who somehow think Peter Warrick’s 40 time was inflated at FSU due to his running a 4.6 for the scouts on the slick wood floor of Tully Gym (where Laveranues Coles ran a 4.4): he may have run a 4.6 in that environment, but he ran a 4.48 two weeks later<\/a> (the link is old; you have to highlight the page to see the text now) in a private workout for the Redskins (the scouts subtracted .15\u2013.2 from everyone’s Tully Gym times based on their chart anyway). The guy was not slow, nor was his 40 time slow. Again, be mindful of the surface when considering or comparing 40 times.<\/p>\n So, returning to the point, do I think Prior’s 4.33 was illegitimate? No, I think he ran that time legitimately (on an electronic system), albeit on a fast track. Does that mean he has world-class speed? No, it just means he has a really fast 40 time and has trained for his start. Does it mean he’d run a 4.3 at the combine? That’s doubtful, since the surface is different. It’s more likely that would turn into a low to mid 4.4 at the combine, which is still unbelievably fast for a quarterback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s that time of year again. Seems like every year around this time, there’s a big fuss over the ridiculous 40 times put up by various football players. As usual, the 40 yard splits of Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, and now Usain Bolt (Johnson’s split was a reported 4.37; Bolt’s about a 4.35) are thrown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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Now it’s true that some universities have a reputation for reporting *ahem* particularly fast 40 times (*cough* Virginia Tech *cough*), with the times they report rarely being anywhere close to the times their players run at the NFL Combine (I’m looking at you, Cory Moore; a 4.39 does not translate to running a 4.7 at the Combine). That said, many universities (including my alma mater<\/span>, Florida State) have transitioned to electronic\/laser timing in order to ensure consistently reliable times (this is why FSU athletes have consistently posted comparable 40 times on campus and at the Combine since 2001, when we transitioned to the laser system). This time, it’s one of those universities (Ohio State) that uses a laser system that has produced a player causing this year’s controversy: Terrell Prior’s 4.33 is being widely panned<\/a> as simply unrealistic.<\/p>\n\n