I know you’ve seen this guy at the gym before.  This is the guy that looks really out of shape and talks to anybody who will listen that he was a 300 pound bencher back in the day.  Yet, when he puts 135 on the bar he struggles to get 5 repetitions mumbling something about “it’s been awhile.”

Well there are similar guys spouting off how fast they used to run the 40 yard dash.

“I was somewhere in the 4.5 range for the 40 when I was younger,” says the guy who looks like he’d collapse if you asked him to run a 40 yard dash right now.

I heard all sorts of “speedsters” when Maurice Clarett ran a 4.72 in his 40 yard dash.  “I can run faster than that,” I heard it seems like from everyone.  The local radio station held a charity event or something to see if you could run the 40 faster than Maurice.  I wish I had gone just to watch.  The way people were talking, there was no one who is actually a slow runner.

4.72 might be slow compared to other top notch running backs, but to your normal Joe Blow, it is pretty darn fast.  And yes, I would doubt that most people could run that type of time.

You ever see Rich Eisen for the NFL network run his 40 at the Combine each year.  He is your typical average American and yes he is running in a suit, but he’s running a 40 in 6 seconds.

So where did we get this inflated sense of speed everybody seems to think they have?

Well, it probably starts with the fact when they do get timed in the 40 it is a handheld time as opposed to a laser.  Laser is more accurate.  At the combine, I’m pretty sure they start handheld, but the finish is a laser.  If you are being timed by a handheld watch, you can add .1 to .2 of a second to your 40 time.  A pure laser is usually .2 slower than handheld and if it is like the NFL combine closer to the .1.

If most of us are getting handheld times, then who is doing the timing?  I’ve been around a lot of coaches timing and they all have odd timing systems.  Eyes might be a little rusty.  Start and finish might be a little slow and quick respectively.  I love my brother and he was fast, but there was no way he ran a 4.23 in the 40 his senior year.  Chris Johnson of the New York Jets has the fastest 40 at the NFL combine and his was a 4.24.

The last fact is that people are basing their times off what they did in high school.  Let’s add in the fact you are 10 years older and 30 pounds heavier.  Your 4.5 time you got in high school was probably closer to a 4.7 and you haven’t run sprints in awhile.  I’m guessing before you get under 5 seconds in the 40, you’re going to pop a hamstring.

Yes, running 5 seconds in the 40 for most professional athletes (depending on their position) is slow.  But, I wouldn’t automatically assume you could have that type of speed to run that fast.  Athletes are athletes for a reason.  They have a certain skill set that the normal person doesn’t have.

I hope you aren’t sitting around me when you see a receiver get caught from behind and you say, “I could have outrun that dude.”  I’m going to call you out on it and say a definitive, “No you couldn’t.”  Unless I’m sitting next to Usain Bolt.   Then I’ll keep my mouth shut.