Chris Johnson has a juicy NFL combine conspiracy theory about the 40-yard dash record and who should have it
Bengals receiver John Ross holds the record for the fastest 40-yard dash ever at the NFL combine, but it sounds like at least one person thinks that record should have an asterisk next to it, and that one person is former record-holder Chris Johnson.
Johnson set the record in 2008 when he ran a 4.24 40, and that number stood until 2017, when Ross broke that mark with a blistering 4.22 40. Although Ross’ name is in the record book, Johnson isn’t convinced that the Bengals receiver should be listed as the true record holder.
In what might go down as the juiciest combine conspiracy of all-time, Johnson believes that the NFL rigged things so that Ross could set the record. Johnson has done multiple interviews over the past few months to try and get his theory out into the mainstream media.
“Still to this day, I don’t believe he beat it,” Johnson said on Good Morning Football. “When you look at the side by side, I pulled off on him at the end. And number two is, when has it ever took that long for the official time to come in?”
Johnson does make two valid points. For one, it took an abnormally long time for the NFL to finalize Ross’ official time after he broke the record. His other point is that it actually looked like his time was better than Ross’ when NFL Network overlapped their runs in 2017, something that Will Brinson noted at the time.
The network used a yellow line to represent Johnson’s time and here’s what things looked like just before the 40-yard mark.
People at home were even somewhat surprised to see that Ross had been credited with a record-breaking time.
Although it’s possible the yellow line was just off, Johnson is convinced the NFL gave the record to Ross to drum up interest in the combine.
“I don’t believe he broke it,” Johnson said. “I think it was an NFL job on that one. They got sick and tired of one person holding the record for so long.”
So what time did Ross actually run? Johnson has his own estimate.
“Probably ran a 4.26,” the former NFL running back said.
Of course, the advantage of being fast is that it almost always helps your stock. Both Johnson and Ross ended up being selected in the first-round after setting the 40 record. Although the record wasn’t broken this year, there have been some fast 40s. Zedrick Woods of Ole Miss had the fastest 40 of the combine, checking in at 4.29. Auburn’s Jamel Dean was a close second with 4.30, while the bronze medal for fastest 40 time at the 2019 combine went to Parris Campbell of Ohio State and Andy Isabella of UMass, who both ran a 4.31.
As for Johnson and Ross, someone on Reddit meshed their 40s together and judging by the video below, maybe Ross did actually break the record.
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