Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Adidas offering to purchase an island for anyone who breaks the 40 yard dash record at the 2017 NFL combined. The record to break is 4.24 seconds, held by running back Chris Johnson. Johnson’s record was set in the 2008 combine.
Over the weekend, John Ross III broke Chris Johnson’s record after running a 4.22 second 40 yard dash. With the game changing speed he showed at The University of Washington, there was a lot of speculation around him regarding whether or not he would have the speed to break the record. He ended up breaking it by 2 one hundredths of a second.
There were a only a few rules and catches that adidas stated prior to the combine to win the island. First the athlete must wear adidas cleats as he is running the 40 yard dash. Second you have to run under a 4.24 40 yard dash. Then third the athlete must enter an endorsement deal with adidas prior to the start of the 2017/2018 season.
It makes a lot of sense for Adidas to make this deal. Their goal was to try to get the fastest player to be seen running in Adidas shoes, then eventually sign with Adidas. Adidas cleats are known for being lightweight, making athletes run faster. Having the fastest player in the NFL wear Adidas shoes would bring a lot of publicity to the brand.
John Ross III, however, wasn’t wearing Adidas football cleats when he broke the record. He was wearing The Nike Vapor 4.2. After all the talk about Adidas prior to the combine, Nike was the brand everybody was talking about. John Ross III won’t be getting an island all to himself or an endorsement deal from one of the biggest brands in sports. He did land himself a deal with Nike, though. Nike ended up tweeting after the record was broken, “On an island all by yourself. Record. Broken. Welcome to the family, @WatchJRoss.”
Peter Zucker • Mar 21, 2017 at 10:52 am
Great article! i’m excited to watch him in the NFL!