Does it really matter how fast a football player runs it?
A fascination with speed, numbers and the minutia of football has made ‘‘the 40" one of the most popular phrases in sports lexicon.
What’s his 40? Scouts don’t like his 40. Wow, what a 40!
Rarely does a football player run 40 yards unimpeded in a straight line during a game, yet there’s a fascination with the time it takes him to cover that distance.
The legitimacy of those times or the outof-proportion importance placed on them doesn’t matter. For some, the 40 is like summer ice cream: can’t get enough.
‘‘It’s probably made to become bigger than life because people talk about it," said Gil Brandt, personnel director for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-89 and now senior analyst for NFL.com.
Brandt will be among the pro coaches, scouts and general managers watching and timing prospective quarterbacks, running backs and receivers in the 40-yard dash today at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Other running backs and offensive linemen ran the 40 at the combine yesterday. Tight ends and defensive linemen run Monday, and linebackers and defensive backs run Tuesday.
The players will do a variety of other traditional meat-market physical drills, but the 40 is the glamour test, the moment when a player at certain positions — primarily running back, receiver and defensive back — can be stigmatized or have his credentials bolstered by hundredths of a second.
‘‘It can mean a lot — millions (of dollars) — depending on what the expectations were for a player before he performs and why he performs poorly," said Neil Cornrich, an agent for NFL players.
Last year, defensive backs Carlos Rogers and Fabian Washington were projected as second-round draft picks before each ran a 4.31 at the combine. Both were picked in the first round.
The importance placed on 40 times is why 10 former Ohio State players participating in this combine spent recent weeks working with Butch Reynolds, the team’s assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Reynolds, a three-time Olympic track star, tutored players such as A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter on the proper form, technique and mind-set needed to run the 40.
‘‘The first step out is very important in the 40," Reynolds said. ‘‘You want to make sure to use your power to move forward and not upward. We teach them to stay low and fire out, like a plane taking off. A plane takes off with power and gradually moves up.‘‘
Some of the NFL’s greatest players moved down in the draft because of poor 40 times.
Emmitt Smith, the league’s alltime leading rusher, ran a 4.7 at the 1990 combine and fell to the No. 17 selection in the first round. That same year, fellow running back Blair Thomas, who ran a 4.45, was picked No. 2.
Jerry Rice came out of Mississippi Valley State in 1985 and ran a pedestrian 4.6 at the combine. Fifteen players were drafted before him.
‘‘Whatever (Rice) ran, he could apply that speed to the game," said Dick LeBeau, defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers. ‘‘How many times did you ever see Jerry Rice get caught once he got a step on a guy? A lot of players are like that."
Chris Spielman can attest.
He finished his Ohio State career in 1987 with stellar linebacker credentials: two-time All-American, three-time All-Big Ten, Lombardi Award winner as a senior.
Spielman ran a 4.85 at the combine. Detroit drafted him in the second round.
‘‘I think if I had broken 4.7 I might have been (taken) higher than the 29 th pick," Spielman said.
Nobody cared about Spielman’s 40 time during an 11-year career in which he was a fourtime Pro Bowl selection, led Detroit in tackles all eight seasons with the Lions and set a Buffalo team record with 206 tackles in 1996.
‘‘A lot of guys can run fast in this world, but not a lot of guys can run fast with pads on," Spielman said.
In football, that’s known as ‘‘playing speed" and has more to do with explosiveness than track-and-field ability.
‘‘Paul Brown would say it’s more important how they play than how fast they run," LeBeau said of the Hall of Fame coach. ‘‘Playing speed may sound nebulous, but it is different than what they run in a straight-line 40-yard dash. Playing speed makes or breaks you."
The innovative Brown is credited with being the first to time players in the 40 when he was OSU coach in the 1940s. He did it to determine who could cover a punt the fastest. He continued testing 40 times as Cleveland Browns coach.
The Dallas Cowboys made the use of 40 times popular, beginning in the 1960s. Brandt said he and coach Tom Landry ‘‘stole it from Coach Brown."
Now, the 40 has become so revered, the NFL Network is televising the dash today as part of its 26 hours of live combine coverage.
‘‘Americans love a race," LeBeau said.
Some prospects might not run, choosing instead to wait to run the 40 at their school’s pro day workout when they’re healthier or more familiar with the environment and running surface.
More players, however, reportedly ran the 40 at last year’s combine than in previous years (Brandt credits TV coverage with spurring competitiveness), and this year the RCA Dome has a new, reputedly faster turf to entice participation.
Those who do run — and some have paid up to $10,000 to be instructed at ‘‘speed camps" — will have their times analyzed like diamonds.
Just remember, some diamonds are frauds.
‘‘A lot of those times are unrealistic," OSU track and field coach Russ Rogers said.
Electronic timing has been used at the combine since 1990, just as it’s used at internationally sanctioned track and field meets. But there’s a key difference in this electronic timing.
‘‘They time you (at the combine) from the time you move your hand," Rogers said. ‘‘In track, they time you based on the sound of the gun. That’s about three- or four-tenths’ difference."
Times from hand-held stopwatches are even less reliable.
‘‘You’r e looking from 40 yards away," Rogers said. ‘‘There&rsquo ;s no way it can be accurate. If you’re 40 yards away and trying to time someone, you’re going to be two- or three-tenths of a second off."
That doesn’t stop alleged 40 times of high-school recruits from miraculously appearing on the Internet or spreading by word of mouth with little or no verification.
In 2001, Rivals.com claimed that about 40 high-school players had 40 times in the 4.3-second range. Compare that to how the San Diego Union-Tribune reported last year that timing officials had broken down videotape of sprinter Ben Johnson’s infamous steroidfueled 100-meter run of 9.79 seconds. They determined that Johnson ran the first 40 yards (converted from meters) in 4.38 seconds.
(Incidentally, Deion Sanders is the fastest-timed player in the history of the combine, recording a 4.29 in 1989.)
‘‘There&rsquo ;s all kinds of issues you’re looking at when someone says, ‘This is my 40 time,’ " OSU recruiting coordinator John Peterson said. ‘‘If I look at a high-school tape and no one catches them, they’re pretty fast."
LeBeau said 40 times are ‘‘valid for some positions" and that ‘‘if a young man runs a 4.8, he won’t play (cornerback) in the National Football League."
Yet the times of 40-yard dashes turned in today will serve as just one component of teams’ evaluations of players.
‘‘You’v e got a database with the 40 — the times of a lot of great, fast athletes," LeBeau said. ‘‘You got something to compare with."
And for football-starved media and fans, it’s something else to chew on.
NFL's $76.5 million financing for Cowboys facility at risk
Stadium funding for many NFL teams -- including $76.5 million for the Dallas Cowboys' facility planned for Arlington -- could become ensnared in a dispute with the players' union, according to an attorney representing the players union.
However, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the team will get its money for the stadium project, with or without union approval.
The league's stadium-financing program, or G-3, requires the approval of its union, which has verbally sparred with the league over extending the collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the owners. The future of the stadium program also is entangled in the question of how the league's 32 teams share their own revenue.
"G-3 is done until a (labor) deal is done," said Jeffrey Kessler, the union's outside legal counsel.
Speaking shortly before the Super Bowl, Jones said that if the league extends the current agreement, then the union would be on board with the stadium-funding program. If the agreement is not renewed, he added, then the league does not need union approval.
But the G-3 program specifically calls for union approval, so it is unclear exactly how Dallas can get the money without the union's nod, one league source said. The agreement does not expire for another two years. The Cowboys' new stadium is estimated to cost $650 million to build and open in 2009.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple told the Dallas Business Journal that because of the delicate status of negotiations, no one from the Cowboys could speak further on the matter.
"We are certainly concerned about the G-3," said John Mara, executive vice president of the New York Giants, which are planning to build a $1 billion stadium with the Jets. "If we do not get a G-3 vote, that has a serious effect on our stadium."
The Jets and Giants are planning to ask for a combined $300 million from the stadium-funding pool, which represents about 30% of the cost of the stadium. The teams hoped to ask for the G-3 approval at the league's annual meeting at the end of March and move into the new venue by 2009.
G-3 was created seven years ago to help teams build stadiums. The money comes from a share of each NFL team's media revenue and the visiting team's share of club-seat money that is generated by the new stadium.
Union approval
Because the visitors' share otherwise would go into the pool of money shared with the players, the union has to approve each disbursement.
Already, eight teams have received $663 million from G-3. Last June, the league approved $76.5 million for Dallas and $34 million for the Indianapolis Colts. But in December, union chief Gene Upshaw said he was withholding judgment about whether he would approve the Cowboys disbursement.
Colts Senior Executive Vice President Pete Ward said the league planned to take up the issue of the team's G-3 money with the union shortly. The money in the Colts case represents only 7% of the expected cost of the stadium.
Even if G-3 dies, Jones argued, the league would continue funding stadiums by returning to the old waiver system. Prior to 1999, when G-3 took effect, the league often dispensed with the requirement to hand over the visitor share of club-seat money for teams that were financing new stadiums.
City eyes Saints, Cowboys preseason game
T
he city of Shreveport is in the preliminary stages of trying to secure an NFL preseason game at Independence Stadium for the 2006 season, Shreveport's Chief Financial Officer Ken Antee said on Monday. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters at Super Bowl XL that the NFL wants the Cowboys to play a preseason game against the New Orleans Saints to benefit Hurricane Katrina relief and boost the Saints' return to Louisiana. "We've had some informal discussions with people that have been working with the (NFL)," Antee said. "We've been having conversations not directly with the NFL, but people working with the NFL. "It's our understanding the NFL wants them to play the two preseason games in the state to help build regional ties. Obviously other than LSU, we've got the best facility in the state to handle a game of that caliber." Saints fans are hopeful the city could land a preseason game. "I wouldn't want to go see a scrimmage, but I'd probably go to a preseason game," Shreveport's Chris Linn said. "No doubt about it." Antee has traded phone calls with Saints representatives and has not yet made contact with the Dallas organization. He hopes to talk with the Saints again today or Wednesday. "We are making adjustments in our schedule so we could do some things early in the preseason in Louisiana," Jones told reporters at the Super Bowl. "We will do all we can do early with the Saints to get the Saints kicked off right." The Saints will play two of their four preseason games outside of New Orleans in the Gulf Coast region. Shreveport has some history with the teams, having hosted a Saints-Cowboys scrimmage in 1998 at Independence Stadium. "The NFL has been pretty much driving it and we're going to do everything we can to get it here from the city's perspective," Antee said.
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