If you must know, we get a prescription each week from “Doctor” Carlos at the Colombia School of Medicine.

 

But that’s not important right now.

 

The truth is that speed is a popular topic this time of year, with the NFL Combine recently concluded and plenty of buzz over Combine heroes. Perhaps the most well-known measurement at the Combine is the 40-yard dash.

 

Everyone wants to know who the speediest players are coming out of college. The speediest players want to show it off at the Combine. And the best-known way that speed is measured is by timing players in the 40.

 

But the 40 is more or less bullshit.

 

At least that’s the argument made – in so many words – by Frank Cooney of NFL Draft Scout.com, who recently sent his findings to the Cold, Hard Football Facts. (In the interest of disclosure, the folks at NFL Draft Scout.com gave us and other football writers free access to what's otherwise a pay site in the hopes that we'd shill for them. We're doing so because we find their data here pretty useful.)

 

Cooney cites Eastern Kentucky’s speedy sensation Rondel Menendez as an example of what happens when you put too much stock in 40 times.

 

Back in 1999, Menendez became the fastest man ever clocked in the 40 at the NFL Combine (4.24 seconds) – that’s 4/100ths of a second faster than the previous bests set by Deion Sanders in 1989 and by Champ Bailey, also in 1999.

 

But Menendez couldn’t even make it in NFL Europe, and was out of pro football by 2002.

 

The bottom line for the Cold, Hard Football Facts is that speed means little when you look at it in a vacuum. You still need to know how to play football.

 

In that respect, speed is a lot like passing yards in a football game. It looks good on paper – but often doesn’t tell you a whole lot about what's really happening.

 

For all his speed, Menendez couldn’t play football. Others on the list of fastest players ever timed at the Combine have also struggled to make an impact.

Just because you’re fast, it doesn’t mean you can play football.

 

But the issue is a bit deeper than that, argues Cooney.

 

Basically, he says, there is no official time in the 40. At the Combine, players run twice and are measured by three different clocks. All six times are recorded – and each team decides how, and if, they want to use the Combine data.

 

And there are inherent and obvious flaws in the system. Namely, the times are largely dependent upon the human element ... and we all know that humans are about as stable as Francium on the periodic table of dependable elements.

 

Two of the three Combine clocks are operated by humans – which creates an obvious potential variable in the times. The other clock is electronic, but is initiated by a human once the player starts to run – again, another human variable.

 

Given these variables, it’s easy to see how discrepancies could develop. And 2/10ths of a second is nothing but the blink of an eye or the micro-twitch of the thumb muscle stopping the clock – but the difference looks pretty radical on paper. A guy who runs a 4.3 is super-fast. A guy who runs a 4.5 is merely fast.

 

Now look at Menendez again: The 4/100ths of a second difference between him and everyone else on the list is pretty dramatic when you consider that just 6/100ths of a second separate No. 2 from No. 25 on the recent list (below) of fastest guys recorded in recent years. Menendez's time is what the statisticians would call an "outlier." It should have raised a few eyebrows. It seems like it did: Atlanta waited until the 247th of 253 total draft picks that year to take a shot on Menendez.

 

Is it possible that the dramatic difference in times could be attributed to human error?

 

Of course it is.

 

On top of these problems, team scouts often find that Combine times vary quite a bit from the 40 times they have in their own personnel files.

 

Bottom line: If you want a 40 you can depend on, turn to Colt 45.

 

That's what we do ... you know, to take the edge off our amazing speed.

 

FASTEST 40 TIMES 1999-2007 (courtesy of NFL Draft Scout.com)

Player	Position	School	Year	Time
Rondel Menendez	WR	Eastern Kentucky	1999	4.24
Champ Bailey	CB	Georgia	1999	4.28
Jerome Mathis	WR	Hampton	2005	4.28
Jay Hinton	RB	Morgan State	1999	4.29
Stanford Routt	CB	Houston	2005	4.29
Fabian Washington	CB	Nebraska	2005	4.29
Darrent Williams	CB	Oklahoma State	2005	4.30
Johnathon Joseph	CB	South Carolina	2006	4.31
Aaron Lockett	WR	Kansas State	2002	4.31
Santana Moss	WR	Miami	2001	4.31
Tim Carter	WR	Auburn	2002	4.32
Kevin Garrett	CB	Southern Methodist	2003	4.32
Antwan Harris	CB	Virginia	2000	4.32
Jason Hill	WR	Washington State	2007	4.32
Chad Jackson	WR	Florida	2006	4.32
Tim Jennings	CB	Georgia	2006	4.32
Chris McKenzie	CB	Arizona State	2005	4.32
Troy Williamson	WR	South Carolina	2005	4.32
Karsten Bailey	WR	Auburn	1999	4.33
Chris Chambers	WR	Wisconsin	2001	4.33
Carlos Francis	WR	Texas Tech	2004	4.33
Kevin Brooks	CB	South Carolina	1999	4.34
Tyrone Calico	WR	Middle Tennessee	2003	4.34
Ahmad Carroll	CB	Arkansas	2004	4.34
Domonique Foxworth	CB	Maryland	2005	4.34
Tye Hill	CB	Clemson	2006	4.34