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Bo Jackson and the 4.12 time 40-yard dash
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:12 pm
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:12 pm
This has obviously been around for years. Many (maybe even most) still believe it is a myth.
Hell, I've always been eager to see any evidence of it myself (though because I watched Bo play, I've never had much doubt of it).
Interestingly enough, though this isn't evidence per se, by watching a Bo Jackson highlight video on YouTube (one that I'd never seen before that seems to have been uploaded last June), I at least finally heard some contemporaneous evidence that it actually happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-mVW-z2jA
At 13:22 of the video, the announcer (and this happened to be the Cotton Bowl after the 1985 season, Bo's last game in an Auburn uniform where he did everything needed to win but the rest of the team didn't) clearly states that Bo ran a 4.12 40.
Again, this isn't video evidence of Bo actually doing it, but it is contemporaneous evidence that football people at that time knew all about it.
Hell, I've always been eager to see any evidence of it myself (though because I watched Bo play, I've never had much doubt of it).
Interestingly enough, though this isn't evidence per se, by watching a Bo Jackson highlight video on YouTube (one that I'd never seen before that seems to have been uploaded last June), I at least finally heard some contemporaneous evidence that it actually happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-mVW-z2jA
At 13:22 of the video, the announcer (and this happened to be the Cotton Bowl after the 1985 season, Bo's last game in an Auburn uniform where he did everything needed to win but the rest of the team didn't) clearly states that Bo ran a 4.12 40.
Again, this isn't video evidence of Bo actually doing it, but it is contemporaneous evidence that football people at that time knew all about it.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:34 pm to beatbammer
Yes, one scout got a hand-reading of 4.12.
Did he actually run that time? Of course not.
Did he actually run that time? Of course not.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:38 pm to metafour
quote:
Yes, one scout got a hand-reading of 4.12.
Well, multiple did from what I've read.
quote:
Did he actually run that time? Of course not.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:38 pm to metafour
Hand times are not electronic times.
Of course not.
But professional scouts hand-timing are different than Auburn ball-boys hand-timing. Scouts careers depended upon accuracy and reliability.
Of course not.
But professional scouts hand-timing are different than Auburn ball-boys hand-timing. Scouts careers depended upon accuracy and reliability.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:53 pm to beatbammer
No one can even confirm the details of the run: was the track even 40 yards? Stuff like this matters, as illegitimate tracks (distance, slope, etc) are absolutely a real thing.
Common sense would tell you that a 4.12 time is absurd. That would have made Bo roughly on par with Usain Bolt, when in reality he wasn't even the best college sprinter of his time. There are guys from that era who ran faster track times than Bo and yet tested nowhere near 4.12. Even if you want to argue that he had some special "40 yard dash" skill that allowed him to run absurdly faster in that measurement, the idea that no one else has come even near that time in the 30+ years since with superior training and coaching is ridiculous. The football players of today literally train with track specialists who perfect technique specific to the 40-yard dash. That didn't exist back when Bo ran the 40; thus the idea that with less training he is somehow still 0.1+ seconds faster than 30+ years of athletes is absurd. The thing with track times is that the lower you go, the more extreme the difference in time actually is. Thus the relative difference between say 4.20 and 4.30 is significantly greater than the difference between 4.50 and 4.60, even though its a 0.10 difference in both cases. Bo's supposed 4.12 compared to John Ross' 4.22 is actually an ABSURD difference.
I have no idea why Auburn fans defend this crap as if their lives depend on it. Bo Jackson is rightfully recognized for his athletic achievement, you really don't have to pretend that he was "literally Superman" to confirm his legacy.
Common sense would tell you that a 4.12 time is absurd. That would have made Bo roughly on par with Usain Bolt, when in reality he wasn't even the best college sprinter of his time. There are guys from that era who ran faster track times than Bo and yet tested nowhere near 4.12. Even if you want to argue that he had some special "40 yard dash" skill that allowed him to run absurdly faster in that measurement, the idea that no one else has come even near that time in the 30+ years since with superior training and coaching is ridiculous. The football players of today literally train with track specialists who perfect technique specific to the 40-yard dash. That didn't exist back when Bo ran the 40; thus the idea that with less training he is somehow still 0.1+ seconds faster than 30+ years of athletes is absurd. The thing with track times is that the lower you go, the more extreme the difference in time actually is. Thus the relative difference between say 4.20 and 4.30 is significantly greater than the difference between 4.50 and 4.60, even though its a 0.10 difference in both cases. Bo's supposed 4.12 compared to John Ross' 4.22 is actually an ABSURD difference.
I have no idea why Auburn fans defend this crap as if their lives depend on it. Bo Jackson is rightfully recognized for his athletic achievement, you really don't have to pretend that he was "literally Superman" to confirm his legacy.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 1:57 pm to metafour
I think you are taking this just a tad too seriously
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:03 pm to GoCrazyAuburn
quote:
I think you are taking this just a tad too seriously
How so? By pointing out that it wasn't real?
Most Auburn fans literally believe that he was actually 4.12 fast, and they are serious about it. I have no intention of further perpetuating that myth.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:07 pm to metafour
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By pointing out that it wasn't real?
Well, I mean, it was real, as real as any other combine time before electronic timing was used.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:21 pm to GoCrazyAuburn
quote:
Well, I mean, it was real, as real as any other combine time before electronic timing was used.
Except that if you actually research the claim you will find that he very likely didn't even perform this feat at the "Combine" as you know it today; but yet at a "special session" in front of a handful of scouts. This essentially means that the time holds as much comparative legitimacy as a time ran on any untested school track: not much.
Like I said; no one can even give an exact place or time for this run. If you can't confirm even those basics, then you can't even confirm that the track was even 40 yards.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:24 pm to metafour
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Most Auburn fans literally believe that he was actually 4.12 fast, and they are serious about it.
quote:
literally
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:28 pm to metafour
quote:
Except that if you actually research the claim you will find that he very likely didn't even perform this feat at the "Combine" as you know it today; but yet at a "special session" in front of a handful of scouts. This essentially means that the time holds as much comparative legitimacy as a time ran on any untested school track: not much.
Well, it was done at Auburn, so you tell me if the track was 40 yards and untested
Bo said himself that he ran a 4.13 electronic time then. Stop watches were even faster. You don't want to believe it, that's fine, but acting like it is completely absurd for anyone to believe it is a silly position to take.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:37 pm to GoCrazyAuburn
quote:
Bo said himself that he ran a 4.13 electronic time then. Stop watches were even faster. You don't want to believe it, that's fine, but acting like it is completely absurd for anyone to believe it is a silly position to take.
Have you heard Bo speak? He's not exactly impervious to pushing the mystique towards his supposed feats. Most of his legend in fact stems from a series of unproven fables; like that he could kill wild boars by throwing rocks at them. I don't doubt that someone didn't actually get that reading and then tell him it, which is why he repeats it as fact. He was told the time, and so he believes it. That doesn't mean that the time itself isn't inaccurate, which it quite obviously is unless you want top delude yourself into believing that he is in fact potentially the fastest human being ever (or at least in that discussion).
This post was edited on 4/4/17 at 2:38 pm
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:43 pm to metafour
Okay? Again, you choose not to believe him, that is fine. However, acting like it is completely absurd for people to believe him is silly.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:50 pm to metafour
Who gives a shite? The story is the dude ran a legendary 4.12 hand time by scouts. End of story. Will live forever in enjoyment for us to use as arguments against other team's scrubs.
Posted on 4/4/17 at 2:58 pm to AUtigerNOLA
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The facts are the dude ran a legendary 4.12 hand time by scouts. End of story.
FIFY
Posted on 4/4/17 at 4:34 pm to GoCrazyAuburn
quote:
I think you are taking this just a tad too seriously
He always does.
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