Usain Bolt's record 40-yard dash puts NFL players to shame

Are you an NFL team looking for a speedy wideout? Maybe an explosive return man? Usain Bolt may be the one for you.

At the 2019 Super Bowl Experience on Saturday, Bolt unofficially tied the NFL scouting combine’s 40-yard dash record with a 4.22-second rumble. The retired sprinter obviously ran away with the event, as he blew away the crowd.

Bolt is known as the fastest man alive, having set the world record in the 100m race three separate times, but this showing was ridiculous.

Without any specific training, and while donning sweatpants and tennis shoes, Bolt tied Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver John Ross’ record from the 2017 combine.

Rounding out the rest of the top five from the combine are Chris Johnson (2008) and Rondel Menendez (1999) at 4.24 seconds and Dri Archer (2014) and Jerome Mathis (2005) at 4.26 seconds.

While players in the NFL rarely run 40 yards straight, the 40-yard dash is the signature event of combine, an event in which elite runners make a point of trying to make history. They train and train and wear cleats and athletic clothing, and yet Bolt can casually tie the league’s best mark.

What makes things even more wild is that Bolt appeared to slow up at the end, in part because he was going to run into a padded barrier. But this also isn’t the first time that Bolt has slowed down at the end of a race.

When he first broke the 100m world record to win gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he was ahead by so much at the end that he looked back and beat his chest with enough time to top his own world record by 0.03 seconds.

Of course, there’s very little chance of Bolt actually playing in the NFL. In 2016, Bolt told Dan Patrick that he had received offers from multiple NFL teams but turned them down because he did not like the idea of taking hits. Bolt has shied away from contact sports, although he briefly trialled with the A-League’s Central Coast Mariners.

At 32, Bolt is retired from sprinting and not expected to compete in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. His Olympic career has ended with eight gold medals – if not for a teammate failing a drug test, he would have been a perfect nine-for-nine – and world records in the 100m, 200m and 4×100m runs.

– Ben Weinrib, Yahoo Sports