ESPN -- Bolt and Johnson looking to set up a race for fastest man in the world.

Bolt's agent is saying there is no chance this is happening...

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=385561.html#bolt+will+race+nfls+johnson

I am serious that I would rather watch a competetive race than a blow out.

Bolt does have way more experience running out of blocks and reacting to a gun.

Roll out a synthetic surface onto the football field and have them race down the center of the field from the 10 yard line to the 50.

Guys come on.

Even if they race 40yards, Bolt wins.

Is Bolt a "slow" starter?

For such a slow starter, at 20m into his World Champs race he was still the fastest by .01. At 40m, he was .06 ahead.

So at 20m he was ahead of, and at 40m significantly ahead of the BEST sprinters in the world. Guys who ran 9.71, 9.84,9.93, and 9.93 in that race. Plus Richard Thompson got the start of his life and still was behind at 20m.

X-Runner wrote:

Racing 100m is as pointless as Bolt putting on pads and trying to break tackles.

40 yards is what they run at the combine.

There would be drama there.

Johnson's 40y time is 4.24 - clock starts when he moves.

Bolt ran about 4.37 en route to the 100m record and had to react to a gun.

With Johnson having to react and Bolt pushing it sooner and dipping they both would be at about 4.35.

That's a race.

It might not be that close. I believe that the combine uses a hand start, but an electronic finish. IOW, the time does not start when he moves, it starts when the person starting the timer sees that he moves (also factoring in, Chris Johnson surely has world class reflexes, but does the person starting the timer?). This makes things much worse for Johnson. Not only did he take longer than his measured time, he'll still have to react to a gun. This could easily add .25 seconds if he's lucky, more if he isn't.

I'm having difficulty finding specific information on how this timing is done, however, so I could be talking out my ass.

I worked at a high school football camp at a big-time university for a couple summers. They had a button on the ground at the start of the 40yd dash, and then an electronic (laser) finish. When you let go of the button, the time started.

I jogged into the start (stepping on the button) and busted my @ss to the finish several times. Felt like I was flying! Best time? 5.2s. So f'n slow!

Oh, almost forgot: It was on the new artificial turf, and I was barefoot. My friend says I could have gone a bit faster with spikes...I'm not sure.

and remember when he tried out for the NFL when he got busted. Guy ran a sub 4 in the 40 and NFL scouts were DROOOOLING.....then they realized he cant cut, catch, throw, tackle, block, run routes etc.......BOLT would easily go sub 4....hell Walt Dix has a video on youtube of him running a sub 4 40....check it out

remember a guy named gatlin? wrote:

and remember when he tried out for the NFL when he got busted. Guy ran a sub 4 in the 40 and NFL scouts were DROOOOLING.....then they realized he cant cut, catch, throw, tackle, block, run routes etc.......BOLT would easily go sub 4....hell Walt Dix has a video on youtube of him running a sub 4 40....check it out

Gaitlin didn't run sub 4. I found a reference to Ted Ginn Jr. running an unofficial 4.06 as the fastest time ever measured. Of course, "unofficial" might mean "hand timed", so heaven knows what he actually ran. However, that's not under 4 seconds.

Sportsbook.com has a betting line.

Bolt -500

johnson +250

Doesn't say a distance but just says the race has to happen by February 28th or all bets are off.

CJ ran his on turf in football cleats. Huge difference for a track. If they ran a 40 on grass without blocks, it'd be very close. Any other way and Bolt would win handily.

It would be great to have this as some side show at the Super Bowl.

Bolt would win in almost every case, the only way Johnson wins is if they run with pads on a sloppy field.

Johnson might very well have more natural speed than Bolt, but Bolt has been doing this full time for years while Jonhons has been playing football.

If they ran, say, a 60m race on a track and Johnson won I think it would be VERY bad for track. I certainly wouldn't look at sprinters the same way.

Good stats

The fastest point of a 100m race is from 50-90m on so the radar check would give Bolt as the fastest

I wonder how accurate the NFL 40 yd timing is?

Did anyone read the article?

"Usain doesn't follow the NFL too closely and is not really familiar with all of the players. He likes (international) football and cricket. But more importantly, he has a schedule and a coach to follow and there is no chance that we would set up this type of event."

ESPN left out this half of the quote:

"There is no truth to the story and I have contacted ESPN in an effort to get them to take the story down because we don't want this to spread like wildfire," Simms said in a phone interview with Universal Sports.

Interesting article.

Here is a preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYX2EWK4QWo

Some guy who could supposedly run 4.1

Bolt would hammer that joker over any distance. What experience does he have at starting from a sprint not standing start?

hmmmmm wrote:

What makes people think this is going to be close? Bolt had the best start in Beijing AND in the WR run, so it's not like the guy is a slow starter.

No, I'm pretty sure Bolt had one of the slowest starts off the blocks.

Here are all the splits from his 9.58

His reaction time is 6/8 but by 20m he is already leading the best sprinters in the world

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ua8ycqfc4ok/Sok0X9U62uI/AAAAAAAABq8/HJwymrWaDn4/s1600-h/Table.gif

Taking off the reaction time like in the NFL I have Bolt at 4.11 for 40 yards. If the race was over 40 yards he would go faster still

By the way check out the 6.31 (!) at 60m compared to the indoor WR 6.39 from Greene. Plus this is from someone who know he has to hold the speed for another 40m

Awesome

Did no one watch the Berlin final last year?

Usain Bolt is the fastest sprinter in the world for any distance between about 10 meters and 250 most likely. Chris Johnson has no chance. Bolt would start to pull ahead after 3 or 4 steps, and then it would just get ugly.

Bolt could run in ice skates and Johnson could dope up for a few months and it still wouldn't be a race.

Johnson ran an illegitimate 4.24, going off his own start. Bolt could most likely run a 4.1-4.2 off a starting gun.

And Ginn isn't even that fast, which is why I find NFL Combine times hilarious. Sure, he's fast, but he wasn't even close to the fastest guy in his STATE in high school, forget comparing him to the elite in the country or even Bolt.

Ginn 4.06? LMAO. He can MAYBE run a mid 4.3 and 10.7 in the 100 with some luck. Not exactly great.