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Controversy Continues Around Big Ten WR's 40-Yard Dash Time at NFL Combine

Issues about the integrity of reporting have created a mini-controversy.
Joe Cox|
Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate's 40-yard dash time has made a mini-controversy.
Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate's 40-yard dash time has made a mini-controversy. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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The obsession with the NFL Combine has made a few hundredths of a second into a controversy. With NFL prospects examined in minute detail, a 40-yard dash timing can create massive blowback... and allegations of conspiracy.

Tate's 40-Yard DashTime

As with most NFL prospects, Ohio State's Carnell Tate ran the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. While most information 40-yard dash timings are hand timed (think: a person with a stopwatch), the NFL's is a hybird of hand timed and electronic (think: a person with a start button and an electronic time stop). When Tate was clocked at a good-not-great official time of 4.52 seconds, odd things started happening.

ESPN's Adam Schefter suggested error, reporting that several NFL executives and GMs had hand-timed Tate at 4.45 to 4.47 second, with that gap of .05 to .07 seconds accounting for perhaps a jump of a handful of NFL Draft slots for Tate.

Allegations of Conspiracy

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio found that situation unusual-- writing that Schefter's report may have been a contrived favor to Tate's agent, Drew Rosenhaus. Florio wrote, "Did Schefter canvas multiple teams for their numbers, or did he simply copy and paste a text from Rosenhaus? Given the way the insider sausage gets made, the far safer bet is the latter."

Firing Back

Needless to say, those allegations did not set well with Schefter. Schefter took to social media and shared texts intended to short-circuit the argument of some sort of conspiracy. Of course, Schefter could not reveal sources, so the text messages don't really prove any more than his initial reports.

Florio went on in his PFT column to spell out his theory in more depth. He noted that similarly shaky reporting had occurred in matters like the DeShaun Watson investigation or an investigation of domestic violence claims against Dalvin Cook. "[T]he formula is the same, for plenty of folks who rely on agents for information," wrote Florio. "Sometimes, they've got to hold their noses and press 'post' in order to stay at the front of the line for the never ending flow of tidbits about transactions."

Of course, NFL teams were well represented at the Combine, and teams interested in Tate will likely evaluate him more fully at Ohio State's Pro Day. The outstanding Ohio State receiver is a likely first-round pick, despite whatever is believed regarding his 40-yard dash time. The flare up of media-on-media violence might be even more surprising as it's likely centering around .05 to .07 seconds and a Draft pick slot or two.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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